Bachelor King 11: Freedom Lost
by creativeKing95
Summary: When the UN falsely accuses Spiny of corruption and human rights violations, he is forced to resign as King and imprisoned outside Amarkia. Meanwhile, the entire UN army invades Amarkia and plunges the country into civil war, kidnapping, looting, destroying, and killing civilians. Soon, both sides will learn secrets that will make or break their chances of victory.
1. Chapter 1

I've mentioned before that being accused of something you didn't do is bad, right? I mean, remember when I got in trouble at school because of Larry? That was a really bad moment in life. But little did I know back then that something monumental would happen in my life. I would once again be accused of false things. But I wouldn't be the only one affected.

My whole family and my entire nation would endure terrible hardships at the hands of corrupt government leaders, other countries, and international organizations. We'd be mocked, abused, invaded, looted, robbed, plundered, divided, and for some, killed.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

It was June 23.

I got up that morning. A usual morning. I got dressed, got my things and drove down to the office.

Larry was already there, as usually happens. "Hey, what's up?" I said.

"Hi. How'd you sleep?"

"Oh, just great. Just great." I noticed that his desk was…well, kind of sloppy. "I see you've been busy."

He laughed. "Yeah, I know. I've been very busy. Want to guess what we've been working on?"

I sat at my desk and got my computer started up. "Sure."

"We're going to update our force field."

"Really?"

Yes, we also have a force field. We've had it for several hundred thousand years. When in times of crisis, it covers the entire country in seconds, protecting us from attacks, invasions, sieges, and even disease outbreaks. We can even make it invisible.

"We're trying a new method. We're going to use particle accelerators to speed up the molecules used in the layers. And I say layers because now the updated force field will have several layers. Each layer will have a coating of plasma and of black matter material."

I made myself a cup of coffee. "Really? Where'd you get the black matter?"

"Oh. We have it stored it. From all our voyages across the universe. We've gotten when traveling through black holes."

"Sounds interesting. I guess it's going to be useful, especially because two days ago we had that aerial attack from Egypt."

"Oh, yeah. Well, I'll say one thing: they're not going to be too happy."

I laughed. "Well, that's their problem. How did that whole thing start anyway? I mean, they must've had reason to attack us. I know it wasn't entirely unprovoked."

"Oh, that. Well, you see one of our Army tanks was on its routine patrol of the border. It made a mistake and got trapped into a corner. It couldn't swerve, so it had to make a U-turn."

I wasn't getting this. "So?"

"Well, you see he was trapped between two strips of land: Amarkian farmland and Egyptian territory. What do you think he chose?"

"The latter?"

Larry nodded. "Yep. And I don't know how Egypt found out about that tiny track he left, but basically that's why they sent 30 fighter jets and bombed 75 houses in a town near the border."

I shook my head. "I can't believe the way they'd act."

Larry shrugged. "That's the way the world is. And besides, I have a whole of other reports which I have to mention to you before lunch."

I sipped from my cup of coffee. "Well, go ahead. Shoot."

He started paging through a whole stack of papers. "Uh, let's see…well, we foiled a plan of terrorism."

That shocked me so much that I sprayed the coffee all over Larry. He stood there, motionless, letting the coffee drip off of him. He blinked his eyes and cleared his throat. "Yes, well, uh, I can see you got that in your brain. And uh, let's see what else? Oh, yes! One of our treasury trucks crashed on a bridge."

"One of our treasury trucks? You mean, the ones that transport money?!"

"Well, they aren't transporting banana peelings."

I smiled sarcastically. "That's not funny!"

"It's hilarious. Anyways, it just so happened that a group of convertibles was on their way back from a car show and when the truck crashed, it spilled a whole ton of coins into the cars. Which just happened to have their tops open."

"No kidding?"

"Yeah, it was $15,000 worth of coins."

"Fifteen thousand grand?! In coins?!"

He shrugged. "Well, it was a pretty big truck."

"How big?"

"About the size of a school bus, more or less. It was one of the biggies."

I laughed. "I bet those car drivers must've been really happy."

"Well, you know the saying: Keepers losers, finders winners."

I stared at him. "What?"

"Uh, I mean, finders losers, keepers winners. No! I mean, losers winners, keepers finders. Ah! I mean…uh, how does it go?"

I sighed. "Finder keepers, losers weepers."

He smiled. "Yeah. That's it!"

I shook my head and smiled. "Really, Larry. Do the world a favor and don't ever enter a spelling bee or vocabulary contest."

I guess he didn't get the message behind that because he didn't respond and went back to his work. "Oh, and I have good news."

"Really? Is that even possible today?"

"I guess it is when you hear it now. We caught one of the most wanted criminals in Amarkia."

I perked up at that. "Oh, really?"

He nodded. "Yeah. Um, it was…oh, what's he called? I can't remember his real name but he had a nickname. He operated illegal nightclubs and casinos." FYI: nightclubs and casinos of all kinds are banned in Amarkia.

"Um…I think his name had to do with poker," I said.

"Yeah, I know. Was it Jack? No. Chip! That was it. He's known as Chip."

"Oh, yeah? You caught Chip?"

He nodded. "Yeah, we caught him. And red-handed. And of course, he asked for bail, but as you know that's very strict here in Amarkia."

I nodded. "I know."

Let me explain something about bails here in Amarkia. In other countries, when someone commits a crime, instead of serving jail, they pay a certain amount of money and they are freed. That's bail. That doesn't happen in Amarkia. We believe that when someone commits a crime, they gotta pay for it and that's that.

That's especially the case with crimes that demand a life sentence or the death penalty. Things like murder, terrorism, abuse of minors, domestic violence, or rape.

Well, the rest of the day was normal. Work as usual. We got out at the usual time. "Oh, and I forgot to mention something to you," Larry said.

"What it is?" I said, as we stepped out of the elevator into the main hallway that leads to the front doors.

"Tomorrow we're going to put the new force field into effect. We're going to be at the main plant. You and I are expected to be there with other officials. And uh, a reporter from The New York Times and who currently works for ABC came from the US. He found out about it and wants to cover the story and interview you. Is that all right?"

We were in the parking garage. I opened the door of TIV and sat in the driver seat. "Sure, it's all right. I can see why people from the world would be interested in that."

"Okay. I'll let them know that you said yes."

"Sounds good." I turned on the engine and we headed home. I sure wish I'd taken a much better look at my great capital. Or said hi to the guards at the Palace Gates and asked how their families were.

Larry and I were greeted by warm smiles and hugs from the family. Well…at least Larry got warm smiles. I usually get the hugs. We both went up to our room to wash up and get ready for dinner.

We went down to the Family Dining Room. The salad and drinks were already served. I went to the kitchen to see what the girls were cooking up. I must say that, even for a kitchen cooking a gourmet dinner, it smelled very delicious. "So what's cooking?" said Larry.

Patty laughed and said, "Well, something you'll love. Actually, Darla's sister recommended it to us. It's actually Darla's favorite dish."

"Oh, you mean we're having hamburgers and fries?" I said.

"No!" said Kathy. "Just like every evening, we're having a special gourmet dinner."

I put my arm around her shoulders. "And just like every evening, I always enjoy it."

She smiled and hugged me. "Oh, thank you Spiny! You're the best brother anyone could ever have!"

Patty said, "I agree. You know, if you weren't my cousin, I would tried a long time ago to try to steal you away from Lilia."

I laughed. "Oh, you're all crazy! But I love you anyway."

They both hugged me. Kathy said, "Aww. We love you too, Spiny." She grabbed something from her jean pocket. "But I must say that we're not the only ones."

It was a little gift box. "What's this?" I opened it. It was a bracelet. A silver bracelet. But not just any regular one. It was one those that you can engrave words into. It said You and Me, Forever.

Larry walked up to us. "Maybe it's from Stefanie Scott."

I looked at him. "Oh, come on!"

"Or it could be from Peyton List," said Kathy. "You like her, don't you?" she said teasingly.

I sighed and said, "That's ridiculous."

"Or maybe it's from The Girl Across The Street," said Patty.

"Now, that is possible!"

We had a good laugh. When dinner was served we all sat down at the table along with Robert and Greeny.

If I would have known what was about to happen, I would've appreciated that evening with my family a lot more.


	2. Chapter 2

Later after dinner, Robert, Greeny and I played a tournament of Mario Kart Wii for about two hours or so. We also talked a lot in between the three of us and had some good laughs. When we finished, I told them to go get ready for bed.

It wasn't that late, so I called Lilia. "Hello?"

"Hi, Spiny!" she said.

"How are you?"

"Fine, and you?"

"I'm fine. I just had dinner and was playing on the Wii with Robert and Greeny."

"Oh, that's nice! We just had dinner too."

"Good. Listen, I wanted to ask you, if it's not too late if you wanted to go out tonight."

"What did you have in mind?"

That was a good question. I didn't really have a good idea of what we could do. We'd gone on picnics, walks in the park, movies, restaurants, stargazing. "Well…to tell you the truth, I'm not sure. How about you?"

"Well…let me think. What if you just come over and we hang out? I've got some brownies my mom just made today."

"Sounds good. I'll be over there right now."

"Okay. See you in a little while."

After I hung up and…realized that Larry had been standing there the whole time, listening to the whole conversation. I stared at him. "What?"

"What of what?" he said dumbly.

"You got a better reply than that?"

"Yeah. How's this? 'What's up, doc?'"

I rolled my eyes and sighed. "Forget it. I'll be right back. I'm going over to Lilia's. I'll be back in a while."

"In a while, or a little while?" he said.

"What's it to you?"

"Well, not a lot to be honest."

"Then stay out of other people's affairs!" Geesh! What was with this guy? No sense trying to talk to a brickhead. I combed my hair and put on some cologne. Then I went down the stairs and walked out the front doors.

Lilia practically swung the door open one second before I rang the bell or knocked on it. I walked in and she closed the door behind me. "Hey."

"Hey," I said back. She put her arms around my waist and kissed me.

"Glad you're here," she said.

"So am I," I said.

She took me by the hand and led me to the living room sofa. She'd set two cups of milk and the batch of brownies was in the middle. "Mmm! Looks good," I said.

We both sat down. "I hope you like them," she said.

I smiled sweetly at her. "I'm sure I will."

She blushed and smiled back. Every time she blushed, she'd have sort of this glow or twinkle in her eyes. I don't know what it is, but it makes my heart go crazy. She stuttered a little. "Well, I think we should start on the brownies before they get cold."

I laughed softly. "Okay." Man, those brownies were something else! They just melted in your mouth. Mmm! You could have those forever in your mouth. Warm and gooey and enjoyable.

We both ate something like four brownies. They were simply irresistible.

I hadn't noticed her parents or her sister. "Where's your family?"

"My parents are out of town and my sister's on a date with Mark."

"Mark? What happened to John?"

"Ah, she broke up with him."

"Why?"

She shook her head. "He was talking to another girl."

"Ohh. And she thought he was playing the field?"

She looked at me. "Yeah. And it's too bad because she's his cousin. And it just so happens that Josh has a beautiful cousin."

"Can't imagine that." I looked at her. "But you don't get jealous when I'm with Patty, right?"

She smiled. "I should, but I don't. " She hugged me. "I love you so much."

"I do, too," I whispered in her ear. I was wearing the bracelet she'd given me. "And thanks for the gift."

She looked at my wrist. "Oh, that. Well, I wanted to give you something for our two-month anniversary."

I laughed. "You show love in the best ways. And I've got something for you, too."

She smiled excitedly. "Really?"

"Yep! You got a guitar close by?"

"Yeah." She got up and grabbed a guitar that was standing up against the wall in the corner. She handed it to me. "Did you write a song?"

I nodded. "Yep. It's going to be in my next CD. But I want you to hear it."

She smiled. "I'm sure it's beautiful!"

"Well, just wait till you hear it all." I tuned the guitar just right. Then I played for her, "You and I." This is how it goes.

Let me be the thief of your heart.

And cover your beauty with my soul,

Close your eyes without fear, put your innocence in my hands.

You and I, one only love, alone.

Like yesterday I want to stay in you.

Stay like the April rains

Plant you like a flower in me

Kiss until the end comes.

I want to take you to heaven, in the ship of my arms

Clinging to my body

Fusing ourselves, lip to lip

You and I, one only love

And live, loving you.

Always loving you.

Let me be your Prince Charming

Drinking your youth with my passion

Plant you like a flower in me

Kiss until the end comes.

I want to take you to heaven, in the ship of my arms

Clinging to my body

Fusing ourselves, lip to lip

You and I, one only love

And live, loving you.

Ohhhh….

I want to take you to heaven, in the ship of my arms

Clinging to my body

Fusing ourselves, lip to lip

You and I, one only love

And live, loving you.

Loving you

Always loving you

You and I.

Loving you, always loving you.

You and I, one only love,

Always loving you.

Not bad, huh? Well, Lilia certainly liked it. How could I tell? Because when I finished, she had a huge smile and a starry look in her eyes. I put the guitar aside and embraced her. She rested her head on my shoulder and sighed. We didn't say anything. We didn't have to.

We stayed there for a while, talking softly and laughing quietly. The time went zooming past. Before I knew it, it was almost ten. I kissed her goodbye and goodnight and got up and left.

If I knew what was going to happen, I would've said, "I love you very, very much!" instead of just saying, "I love you."


	3. Chapter 3

Next day when I got to the office and saw Larry there, I saw him…well, quite worried. "Hey, what's wrong?" I said to him.

He looked at me. "You remember how I said we were going to test the force field today?"

I nodded. "Yeah?"

"Well, we're going to have to change our plans."

"What?"

"We're going to set up the force field. Not just test it. And we're going to keep it on as long as possible."

"Whoa, whoa! Larry calm down! What are you talking about? What's wrong?"

He sighed. "Sit down."

I sat down at my desk. "What's the trouble?"

He shook his head. "We're in huge problems. Or should I say, you are."

"Could you please explain?"

He started pacing back and forth. "The US, Canada, and the entire European Union are joining forces."

"To do what?"

He sighed. "They don't like our stance on LGBT rights and abortion." I should mention a little about this, since these are delicate and controversial matters. Here in Amarkia, we try to live by high morals. The kind of morals that don't exist today and that people make fun of.

As for gay marriage and LGBT rights…well, how can I say it? Well, we are not, I repeat, are not prejudiced against those people. And we do not infringe on their rights. They can have jobs, and a good education and all that. But, we don't allow them to have government positions and they can't adopt or have custody of minors.

And if they want to get married, they have to go do it in another country, because we're against that. We view gay marriage as grossly immoral. I mean, think about it. Animals are all male and female, right? Why should humans, who are superior to animals, be different?

And besides, most common people in Amarkia look down on gay marriage.

And as for abortion…

We view it as murder. That's it. It's murder. Never mind all that talk of the woman having rights. If she didn't want to get pregnant, she shouldn't have gotten pregnant in the first place. And even though it's not a conscious being and it feels no pain, it's still a living human. And it's still murder. Abortion in Amarkia is punishable by death.

However, sometimes the woman suffers a spontaneous abortion. We understand that it wasn't of her will, and we forgive her. Or sometimes, her husband, boyfriend or partner attacks her in order to kill the baby. If he doesn't succeed, he has to pay the damages. If he does succeed, he receives the death penalty.

So now you know not only our view on those two areas, but also my own personal view.

Anyways, I said, "Well, not everyone likes us completely, you know."

"Yeah, I know but this time it's different."

"What do you mean?"

"They're giving you one last chance. If you don't change the laws, they're going to take you to the UN Court of International Justice."

My heart leapt up to my throat and started hammering like crazy. My voice croaked. "What?!"

He nodded. "Yeah."

"They can't do that! They have no right!"

"Well, in a sense, you're legally obliged to go. And since we're not in the UN, we really don't have a say in the matter. That's the one and only disadvantage of not being part of the UN. They can arrest you and take you far away."

I gulped. I suddenly saw my whole life go before me. "Is that why you said that you were going to put the force field on permanently?"

"As long as I can. I mean, we can't have the force field on forever, you know."

I sighed and put my hands in my pockets. "That's true."

He walked back to his chair. "What do you think the worst-case scenario is?"

"The worst? Well, the worst would be that I get arrested, dethroned, and my family is also taken away. The monarchy is dissolved. They turn Amarkia into a republic with highly liberal laws, make a purge of all the military and civilian government leaders, destroy the constitution, burn the Palace, seize all of our riches, sell the cancer cure at high prices, take over the military, drill for oil and other fossil fuels, discovery the super powers…"

"Okay, okay! Please don't go on! That gives me a pretty good idea. And I must say, that is scary."

"I know."

"But you know what? I think that's not the worst thing that can happen."

"Really? Well, what could be worse?"

He shrugged. "I don't know. I just have a feeling that something could be worse."

We went back to our desks and continued our work. The huge tension in the air was not unnoticeable. It was like the calm before the storm. The eye of the hurricane. The moment before the bomb explodes. The lightning before the thunder.

Larry suddenly shot up and shrieked. And I mean, shrieked! He actually squealed. That was no ordinary scream.

Naturally, being under those circumstances, I got scared. "What? What is it?"

Larry turned on the TV that we have in the office. He turned to the news. "Breaking News of the last minute! We have just confirmed that three airplanes with UN officials and UN peacekeeping troops have landed in Amarkia. A search will begin to arrest the King and take him to the UN Court of Justice in The Netherlands."

Larry and I both stared at each other in shock. I screamed. I couldn't help it. "What do we do?!"

"Uh…uh…uh…uh…I'm activating the force field right now!" He ran over to the secret closet we have in the back. He opened it and ran in. A little while later he came out. "Okay, it's on. Now, we have to get you on a helicopter and take you somewhere…somewhere…I know! We'll go to the Great Chasm that's in the desert and hide in one of the caverns."

"Helicopters? Hide in the caverns? What are you, crazy?" I exclaimed. I guess I was so nervous that I didn't know what I was saying.

"Just go! Just go! Come on, let's go!"

"Okay, okay!" We both ran out the office and took the elevator to the roof of the building. The yellow chopper was waiting there on the helipad. We ran in and closed the doors behind us. The pilot and co-pilot started the engine and we floated in the air. We turned towards the northeast and headed in that direction.

"I hope no one sees us," I said to Larry over the noise of the blades.

"Well, we are a yellow helicopter," he said.

"Yeah, but we're a helicopter. We could be flying for any reason!"

Larry looked out the window behind us. "Yeah, just like that black helicopter behind us with the UN symbol on it."

My heart stopped beating. I whirled around in my chair. Sure enough a black, menacing-looking helicopter was hot on our trail.


	4. Chapter 4

Larry had been right. A huge black helicopter with dark grey windows and the bright blue UN symbol. It had a very menacing look. "Hurry, go faster!" Larry yelled at the pilot. We accelerated, pushing as back against our seats.

We flew over downtown Sauropolis, evading the mighty skyscrapers, while trying to lose the pursuer. But as we kept on flying away, out of nowhere, three other UN helicopters appeared and joined in the pursuit.

Now we were really in trouble. Or should I say, I was in trouble. In really deep trouble.

For about half an hour, we kept fleeing, trying to somehow get away. However, deep down, we all knew that it was impossible to hide. We knew it was impossible to flee. We knew that this was just a wild goose run. We knew that I was going to get caught.

The landscape beneath us changed from city. Then from city to suburban. Then suburban to rural homes and farmland. And finally, it changed from mixed forest to desert. (Look at the map to keep track of where we are.)

Larry had suggested that we go into the Great Chasm, which is the huge canyon that slices through most of the Great Desert. It has three cities on its edges, but also towns in its very walls, carved out of the rock. That's where our Air Patrol Forces, known as Skybaxes, train and live.

Anyways, there we were, being chased by four…no wait! SIX UN helicopters. We had nowhere to go. Nowhere to hide. One of the choppers hovered on our left side and somebody opened the door and yelled through a speaker, "Land that thing right now!"

Uh-oh. Larry looked at me, "Now what?!"

"Uh…uh…" I don't know why it suddenly hit me. I mean, they were chasing us. And we were in a yellow helicopter. Did that mean that it was carrying the King? Not necessarily. Heh heh.

"Disguise ourselves," I said.

Larry looked at me as if I'd lost my mind. "What?"

"Just disguise ourselves. We'll pose as reporters."

"Reporters? What?"

"Just do it!"

In record time, Larry and I changed ourselves from King and Assistant, to Journalist and Cameraman. I was even wearing glasses, a cap, and a pencil in my ear. Larry was now holding a huge black camera.

"Land that thing now!" he yelled from the other chopper.

I patted the pilot. "Land." He nodded and we stopped moving and hovered for a moment. We landed on the desert sand, at the entrance of some caverns. The minute we land, all the UN soldiers ripped off our doors and pulled me out hard, throwing me against the ground.

"Why didn't you stop when you were ordered?!" one of the UN soldiers yelled.

I had to answer quickly so that they wouldn't suspect. "Were you talking to us?"

He looked at me all over. "Yes…aren't you the King?"

I tried to look shocked. "Me! The King!" I looked at Larry. "Did you hear that?" We both laughed.

Yikes! The UN guy sure didn't look cheery. He slammed his huge gun against a rock, splitting it in two. "This is no time for jokes! We've come to arrest your King for violating human rights!"

"Well, I can't imagine him being like that."

"He is! He didn't agree to pro-abortion and LGBT rights when we required it to him."

"Well, he has his own moral standards, you know."

"That doesn't mean he has to treat them like scum!"

I was getting angry now. "He doesn't treat them like scum!"

You know what he did? He slapped me across the face. "YES HE DOES!"

Boy, did I feel like ripping him apart in little pieces…I took a deep breath and silently counted from 10 to one. I had to control my temper. "Well…if you say so."

"I say so!" Then he looked at me again. "Who are you anyway?"

"Oh, uh, we're reporters."

"That's right," said Larry. "We're reporters. We're, uh, covering a story as part of a project."

He suddenly became a lot friendlier. "Oh, really? You're working for the news?"

"Not really. We're doing it for…for college." I don't know why the heck I said that, but I did. Now I couldn't take it back.

"Yeah, for college. We uh, had to get all the way over here. You see, this part of Amarkia is only accessible by helicopter."

I nodded. "That's right."

The soldier nodded. "Oh, I see." He turned to the others and yelled, "Keep searching!"

I kept talking, so we could kill time. "Anyways, yes, we're doing a college report for our, well, my class. You see, I'm majoring in Journalism. And my friend here is majoring in Technical Engineering."

Larry nodded. "Yeah, and we were assigned together."

"Really?" said the soldier. "And what college do you go to?"

"Um…" Eek! I hadn't thought of that.

Larry and I stuttered for a while. "The big one in downtown Sauropolis," I said.

"Yeah, the uh…Greater Amarkian Institution for Higher Learning. GAIHL," Larry said.

"Oh, that's nice. I hear colleges are very good here."

"Yeah, they're the best," I said.

The soldier was about to say something else, when his eyes popped open. I was about to ask if something was wrong when he pointed at my right hand. I looked at it. Huh. Nothing unusual about it.

I mean, it was clean and all. Hmm. I had a small cut, but it was almost healed and…then my heart stopped and I wanted to die. "Is that a a real gold ring?" the soldier said.

"HUH?! What? Oh, this. Well, I, uh…"

"You see, he's uh, he's, uh, uh, uh, very rich!" Larry said.

"And with red diamonds?!" the soldier exclaimed. He turned to the others. "IT'S HIM! IT'S HIM! GET HIM!"

He tried to grab me, but I managed to escape at the last second. Larry and I jumped into the chopper. We yelled frantically at the pilot to get us out of there. That's when he heard it. The shooting.

"Hey! Are they actually shooting bullets at us?" Larry said, sounding shocked.

"Yes, those are bullets. Like the kind that kills people!"

We were about fifty feet in the air, when I heard the sound of glass breaking. The pilot slumped over the dashboard. I raced to him to see what had happened. He'd been shot. He was dead.

We were losing altitude. If we didn't crash into a fireball, I'd be crashed into a prison cell. So I removed him and took over the controls and got us back up.

"Our guards are there!" Larry yelled. "They're blocking them! The UN guys are trying to arrest them but they're resisting!"

The co-pilot and I managed to get out of the scene and fly into one of the caverns. We flew deep into it, until the entrance of the cave was no longer visible behind us. The cavern roof was pretty high.

About three minutes later, though, it suddenly got lower without warning, and the top of our chopper crashed against it. Two of the blades flew off. We started falling fast. The front end of the chopper smashed harshly against the cave floor, bumping us like sardines in a can. We continued skidding, throwing dust and cave water into the air and crashing through stalagmites. Stalactites. Who cares?!

We lost the co-pilot too.

When the chopper finally stopped, Larry and I squeezed ourselves out of the wreck and stepped into the cool, moist air of the cave. There were several giant crystals that provided plenty of light.

I looked around. "Well…do you think we're safe?"

"Well, we are unless they saw us when we came in. And they were pretty close behind us."

I sighed and put my hands on my waist. "Well…let's go in a little deeper. We know these caves pretty well. They have plenty of secret passageways. One of these can lead us right to the Upper Woods and we can sneak back to the Palace and hide in The Bunker."

He nodded. "Good idea."

We started walking deeper into the cave. Amarkia has a gigantic system of interconnected caves. These are the reason that Amarkian dinosaurs didn't go extinct. Most of the population was moved inside here and they remained here for almost two centuries.

It was kinda crowded for a while at the end, but it saved them and they were able to rebuild everything once the dust cleared. Literally.

Just a little FYI for you.

We hadn't been walking for twenty minutes when Larry and I both stopped in our tracks. We heard voices and the rumble of heavy vehicles. Then, suddenly a flash of light hit us, like a stone.

"THERE HE IS!" someone yelled. The cave erupted into yelling, shouting, and shooting.

My legs had turned to water. I couldn't move. Larry had to forcibly push me ahead. We ran like maniacs.

We came across a vehicle. It was one of those huge police or prison cars that transport prisoners. The ones that have a glass separation between the front and the back where the prisoners sit.

Larry and I jumped in.

Thankfully, it started and the tires screeched as we headed deeper into the cave. My eyes were fixed on the terrain in front of us. I was too scared to see the rearview mirrors. I could hear the shouting fading.

I thought we were getting away…until we saw three UN trucks appear out of nowhere in front of us. I slammed the brakes, making them scream violently. I swung it in reverse and started going back.

Our back slammed into other UN trucks. I tried to swerve to the left, but we were on the edge of a canyon. So I swerved to the right. And nearly crashed into a huge UN tank. "Now what?!" I said, terrified.

"Uh, uh, uh…we can't do anything!" said Larry. His words shocked me to the bone. I had NEVER, NEVER EVER seen Larry admit defeat before. It was like he'd had a complete personality change.

Larry and I jumped into the back and closed the glass divider behind us. The truck started rocking back and forth abruptly. My gosh, were they trying to kill us? The front windshield crashed. Then the driver's window. Then the passenger's.

"Now what?" I said.

"Well…we're surrounded," Larry said.

"But what do we do know?"

"Well, we're surrounded."

"For goodness sake', will you stop saying that we're surrounded!"

"Okay, I got it! On the count of three, we burst out the doors and make a run for it. Three!"

Never mind one and two. We burst out the door and ran…right into a circle of tanks.


	5. Chapter 5

We were trapped. Goners. Doomed. Stuck. Confined. Ensnared. No escape.

A huge array of UN soldiers came up with their equally huge guns. For some reason, those guys reminded me of the SS. And they proved to be just like them. One of them came and slapped me…with a glass bottle. Another one punched me in the face several times.

Several more kicked me until I collapsed. Then they put handcuffs on me. Another one stuck me in the middle of the back with the back of his gun. I tried my best not to cry. If I did, it would give them reason to make fun of me. Then, I felt one of them take the bracelet of my hands. The silver bracelet that Lilia had made for me.

They made some cruel jokes and I saw one of them throw it into the canyon. Then, they slipped another bracelet on me. He pulled me abruptly and whispered harshly to me, "You won't go anywhere without us knowing! Too bad you won't be around to see your little girlfriend!"

Then he threw me inside on of their trucks so hard that I banged my head against the wall. Then they threw Larry in as if he was a rotten apple infected with smallpox.

They slammed the door shut and headed back to the entrance of the cave. Larry said, "Well, what do we do know?"

"Nothing," I muttered.

"Oh, great! We'll improvise! So what's the plan?"

"There's no plan. Can't you see it?! I'm defeated! This is the end! It's the end of Amarkia. It's the end of our world. It's the end of a great nation! It's the end of everything we worked 95 million years to accomplish! And it's likely to be the end of me. These two weeks will probably be the last ones of my life."

I looked down and sighed. I had resigned myself to death. My entire life passed before me. My days as a toddler, hanging from tree branches. When my father remarried and met Kathy. When I lost my father. When my family and I regained the throne. My days as a preteen. Of becoming wiser and smarter and more capable every day. Of when I met Larry. My first kiss. My first dance. My first album. I even saw the wonderful evening I'd spent with Lilia about 18 hours earlier.

And now, that was all gone. I imagined how Amarkia would be transformed by the UN when I was killed. It was a horrible nightmare vision.

But Larry said, "Spiny! We're not giving up. We never have and we never will. Even if all the odds are against us and it seems there's no way out. We can and will go on. Life will go on. We have to make the effort."

He stood up and walked around, despite the bumps on the road. "We have a plan for this."

"What?"

"Back in 1945, when the UN first came into existence, we knew that we would have troubles with them. We imagined the worst possible case scenario: this. So, ever since then, I and other military and civilian government leaders have been working on a secret government plan. It's called Operation Separation. It's like our Manhattan Project. We know what to do. We handle it all. All you have to do is bear with things."

I don't know why, but somehow I felt a whole lot better.

"You see," he continued. "We were prepared for this. Because we knew you wouldn't."

"What? What do you mean? I never imagined this could happen!"

"I warned you about it!"

"Larry, giving me 3 minutes' notice is not exactly what you can call lead time."

"Then why did you jump in the helicopter, you idiot! You could've gone to The Bunker!"

"Me, and idiot?! You're the one who suggested the chopper!"

He was about to say something, but he stopped himself. "That might not have been the smartest idea I've come up with."

"And you wait till now to tell me that?!"

He rolled his eyes. "Okay, just bear with me for a while. Okay?"

I shrugged. "Okay."

He sat back down. The rest of the trip was silent. Except for the sound of the engines all around us, the radio, and even…people yelling. Protesting. I could tell when we were on our street. I could hear hordes of people demanding the UN guys to let me go. Then…I heard shooting.

The yelling turned into screaming and shrieks. I couldn't stand to hear it. Here I was prisoner to my enemies, who were firing on my own people. I felt so…powerless. Useless. Helpless. Incapable.

I heard the creak of the Palace Gates opening and closing behind us. The truck stopped and the back doors opened. One of the UN guys, grabbed me by my hair and pulled me out hard. These guys didn't care a thing that they were injuring me. But that's the UN, for you.

Anyways, he said, "King Spiny, you are now under official house arrest and prohibition!"

"House arrest?!" I said. "How do you expect me to run a country from my Palace?"

"Shut up and get in that…that…dictator's castle!"

"You take that back!"

"QUIET!" He struck me in the face. I collapsed and he started kicking me. Larry tried to so do something but he was pinned. The UN guys who were hitting and kicking me started laughing. They clearly enjoyed this. They kept on beating me until they got bored of it.

Then, one of them grabbed me by the hair and started dragging me to the Palace Doors. I could hear Kathy's shock when we came in. One of them threw her—not pushed her, but threw her—into the living room.

While they dragged me upstairs, I could hear opening things and destroying stuff. Greeny appeared in the hallway. You know what they did then? They kicked him right in his face. He started crying. They began laughing and kicked him harder until his mouth turned into a waterfall of blood.

I could feel my wild dinosaur instincts starting to creep in. I wanted so badly to kill them. I actually wanted to kill them.

When we got to my room, the kicked the door open and threw me on the bed, hitting my head in the process against some metal. "Enjoy your extinction days, reptile!" they said, laughing manically.

Larry came in and shut and locked the door behind him. Everything hurt, even my mind. "I think they broke my face," I said.

Larry shook his head. "Nah! You're still adorable."

I scoffed. "Gee, thanks. I think you start writing out my will."

"I already told you that you're not going to die!"

One of the guards, busted the door open, destroying the lock in the process. Larry looked at him and said, "Can't you let him have a few moments alone?"

"NO!"

Larry crossed his arms. "Well, if you want to know the King's private details, he happens to sleep without any clothes on."

"LARRY!" I yelled frantically. What the heck had gotten into him?! And no, I do not sleep naked, thank you. On my King's Honor.

The UN guy looked well…what do you think? "Wha…uh…eh…I'm getting out of here." He left the room, closing the door.

I gawked at Larry. "Have you gone completely insane?!"

He laughed. Oh, he thought it was so funny. Then he stopped quickly. "Okay, we get him out of the way. Now," he said in a more serious tone. "We have some of our top secret military advisors. Right here."

"Here? You mean in this room?"

He nodded. "Yeah. They're under the bed."

Before you could say "what?!" five guys in uniforms crawled out from under my bed.

Obviously I was surprised. "Where'd they come from?"

"From under the bed, where else?" said Larry.

I stared at him. "Oh, shut up."

"Okay, this is the plan: once they take you away, they're going to assume that they can do anything they want."

I sat down at my bed. "I just hope they won't try to change our way of life."

"Oh, they will. That's what they came for. They'll try to dissolve the monarchy and erase the constitution. But if they try to make changes, they'll have another thing coming to them."

I looked up at him. "What are you going to do in case they do try to change things?"

One of the military advisors said, "We won't let them, sir."

That answer was…a little too basic. "What do you mean? You mean…fight?"

"If that's necessary," said another one of them.

"Yes," said Larry. "Well, first we'll try to negotiate. Then, we'll argue. After that, we sabotage. And if none of that works…we fight."

The thought of that chilled me to the bone. It's true, Amarkia has a very large and well organized army, but I don't like to have to resort to fighting. I just don't like it. "So, what do we do in the mean time?"

"Well, we'll try to weather this thing out. You might have to leave."

I laid back on my soft pillow. "And in the meantime, we weather this whole thing out?"

He nodded. "Yeah, so try to get a good night's sleep."

I nodded. "Yeah, I'll try to." Larry and the military advisors left me to sleep. Everything ached and hurt. My head, my face, my jaw, my arms and legs…everywhere where they had hit me.

I tried to sleep peacefully and comfortably. Something told that this would be the last time that I would ever sleep in my own bed.

The next morning, I woke up to someone banging and pounding on my door.


	6. Chapter 6

"OPEN UP!"

I was too weak to get up. The beating that the UN soldiers had given me had taken their toll on me.

My voice croaked, "It's open."

"OPEN I SAY!"

"I said it's open," I said. Even talking in a normal tone of voice ached my throat.

The UN official opened the door. "Just like you to know that we're going to make sure you have a lawyer for your case."

"Well, thanks a ton for providing me with that universal right."

"Of course we are. We're the UN."

"That's why I'm surprised. Blech!"

He left and a little while later Larry arrived. "Well, what you going to do?"

I threw off the covers and got up. "Well, I'll try to weather this thing out." I stretched. "Well, I guess there's nothing I can do. I might as well pack up my things." I got up and was starting to make my bed when (surprise) another UN guy burst in the door.

He walked up to me and grabbed my hand. "Hey, what are you doing?!"

"I'm taking your ring!"

"What for?"

"You're not the ruler of Amarkia anymore. It's ours, now!"

"Stop it! You have no right!"

He struck me again, cracking my front tooth. Larry pushed him away. "He's right! You have no authority. The UN Court has not made a decision on this yet. So until then, you can't do anything yet!"

I looked at Larry. "What do you mean, 'yet'?"

"Uh…today?"

"Worse."

"Uh…for now?"

"Shut up!"

The UN guy muttered a few curse words under his breath and left. Larry walked over to my personal desk. He grabbed a bunch of papers. "Let's see…ah! Here we are!"

"What's that?"

"Oh, these are the charges against you. Let's see what we've got: human rights violations, persecution of minorities, evading arrest, insulting higher authority…stockpile of dangerous weapons?! WHAT?"

That caught my attention. "What do you think they mean by that? Do you think they know about the superpowers?"

"Uh, no not yet."

"What do you mean, 'yet'?"

"No, wait! What I meant was…ugh. I don't know why I said yet. I keep using that word. That's not good. It's a bad omen."

I glared at him. "I don't believe in omens." I sighed. "What else?"

"What else what?"

"What else are they accusing me of?"

"Oh, right! Let me check." He kept paging through the documents. "Uh…looking…looking…hmm. Yeah, that's pretty much it. Those are the main things."

Well, that certainly didn't make me feel any better. I couldn't feel worse than I already was. That was scientifically impossible.

"Oh, and I told Roger to come in," Larry said.

I looked at Larry. "Roger or Robert?" Larry was always getting those two mixed up.

"Your son."

"My WHAT?!"

"No, wait! I mean, your brother. Your brother. Uh, uh, uh, Robert. That's it, Robert."

As if on cue, guess who walked in? Yep. Robert S. Kyverná. "Spiny, what's happening?" He looked scared and confused.

"Come in, Robert."

"Yes?"

"Sit down," I said, pointing to a chair.

"Yes?" He sat down and started listening.

"Now, you're barely 12 years old, but I think you're mature enough to understand certain things."

"Yes?"

"Well, as you might've guess, they're taking me to the UN court. And they're charging me for violating human rights, among other things."

"Yes?"

"But in fact, it's because we don't any pro-abortion and pro-LGBT laws."

"Yes?"

"But you know why we believe those things are wrong."

"Yes?"

"And that the world's morality has deteriorated so much that they'll accept anything now."

"Yes?"

"Will you please stop saying that?!"

"Ye…I mean, uh, sorry. Keep going."

"Well, anyways, things are looking pretty bad now. Especially for me. And I know that you're barely a preteen, but you're honest, responsible and hardworking. You may have the chance to prove that once you become King. Which now seems likely."

"Oh, Spiny, don't say things like that! Surely everything's going to be all right."

"I wish it were, but…well, it is the UN. Every single country in the world is on their side and against us. And they may decide to take my life. So, in case something does happen…I want you to be strong. For me. For the family. For all of Amarkia. Stand up and defend what you believe in."

Robert was almost crying now. I put my hand on his shoulder. "You're ready, Robert." I pulled him into a hug. I could feel my tears coming out. He gasped, trying to hold in the crying. I could tell he was trying his best to be strong.

At that moment, I felt so proud of him like I'd never had been in my whole life.

I was sure that when the time came, he would do a fine job.

I trusted him at that moment.

More than anyone on the entire planet.

More than anyone in the entire universe.

But that great moment was rudely interrupted when three UN soldiers burst in. Again. This was starting to get boring. I was even getting used to it.

"What are you doing here?!" one of them yelled.

"He's my brother! He's got every right to be here. It's his Palace, too! Why should you care?"

"I do care! Teaching him horrible propaganda."

I felt my blood boiling and my temper rising. But I knew that an outburst of anger would only make things worse. So I had to use all the willpower in me to control myself.

"I was having a man-to-man chat with him. I want to prepare him for what might happen, in case you decide to take my life."

He smiled evilly and laughed. "In that case, start getting ready."

He left with the other two, laughing as if my near death was going to be the best experience in the world to see.

But at the moment, I didn't care at all.

All I wanted to do was to prepare my family for the worst.

But in my heart, the flame of hope still burned.

And in my heart, I was certain that in the end that hope would pay off.


	7. Chapter 7

The rest of that week was the worst in my life. I wasn't even allowed out of my room to eat with my family. Then Larry told me that the UN soldiers had thrown out all of our food and had driven their tanks across our crops to make sure we didn't have anything to eat. They also killed a large amount of our livestock.

And he also mentioned that they locked up Kathy, Patty, Robert and Greeny in their rooms. They took all our jewelry, bracelets, rings and whatever money we had on us. They also talked about selling all our furniture and using the money to finance oil drilling in Amarkia.

But as bad as all that seemed, it wasn't anything near what was about to happen.

The computer beeped. Larry went to check it. "Live News. King Spiny Unofficial Ruler of Amarkia. WHAT?!"

I ran over to the computer. It was as plain as day. It was on all the major headlines. "What? You mean…I've been dethroned? I longer have any power whatsoever in the country?"

"Yeah. And now…UN will take full charge of government?!"

"They what?"

"And…they're going to take our force field machines and our algae oil refineries and take them to the US! To secure them under American hands?!"

I couldn't help it. I grabbed the first thing I saw: a hammer. I started pounding against the wall. I pounded and pounded and pounded. I was ENRAGED. I was FUMING. I had to let all that anger out.

"They can't do that!" I said, yelling at the top of my lungs. "They have no right."

I could tell Larry felt the same way. "I'm calling them right now!" He grabbed the phone. "Marge! I don't care if that's not your name. Contact me with…with…arg! I don't even know! With the guy in charge of those UN idiots who are taking our stuff away."

Ring. Ring. Ring.

Larry pushed the phone in my hands. "Hello?" said a voice.

"What do you think you're doing?!"

"What?"

"You have no right to take what's rightfully ours!"

"We're just…"

"I don't care! You are stealing! You are looting us! It's the same thing you've done in other countries!"

Well, that got him mad. "Hey! Don't say anything before your trial you'll regret! All right. We'll put the force field machines back. We don't even know how to unplug those things. But we will take 20% of the algae oil refineries."

"What?!"

"Either that or we take it all and put all of your citizens in prison camps."

"You wouldn't!"

"Don't tempt me. Take it or leave it. Goodbye, have a horrible day. I hope you die!" He hung up.

ARGH! I was SO angry!

"Temper, temper," Larry said.

"Oh, shut up!"

"Well, look on the bright side. They don't know peanuts about how to operate those machines. It'll take them centuries, literally, to find out. So we're not really losing anything." His phone beeped. "Oh, no!"

"What? What?"

"They located the hospital where we have the cancer cure stocked up."

"What? How did they find out?"

"I don't know! They're there. Actually, it's on live television, right now. They're trying to get in, but our guards are blocking the entrance."

He turned the TV in our room on. He didn't have to change the channel. This was happening in every single channel. Even in the ones about documentaries, sports, reality TV, and even kid shows. All the channels had the same story, even if they didn't have their own news station.

Anyways, the screen showed just what Larry had described. Our guards were completely blocking the entire front entrance of the hospital. The UN troops were trying to break in, but were being held back.

"I gave orders for them to block the entrance while the others hide the medicine," Larry said.

I fixed my eyes on the screen. The camera zoomed in. Tension was building between the two sides. Finally, something happened. One of the UN guys tried to get in through a hole. But our guards pinned him down and were able to disarm him. Then the camera went off the air.

"Oh. That must've been embarrassing," said Larry, laughing.

"I'm glad. I want this to be televised and shown on the world's major news channels. I want the whole world to know what the UN is doing to us and how they're treating us."

Larry stopped laughing and said, "Sir, yes, sir. We'll contact our Telecommunications Unit and give them the word." He began pacing back and forth. He was obviously thinking at a quick pace.

"I gave them orders to keep the UN troops out of there, until they get 93% of the stuff out."

"What? Only 93%? Why did leave that other 7%?"

"Spiny, if they went in and saw that it was empty, they'd know that we were hiding it in a secret location and they'd start looking. Pretty soon, it would be only a matter of time before they found it. Do you realize what would happen then?"

I sighed. "I don't want to even think about it."

Larry turned on a two-way radio. "This will let us hear anything that goes in between our guards and the UN soldiers."

He set it on the table. We both pulled up chairs and stared listening. We heard the crackle of static and voices in the background. "So, you finally came to your senses and let us in?" I guess that was one of the UN guys.

I heard a cabinet open and glass bottles rattling. "Hmm. Pretty good. This will sell at least $2,000 per ounce back in America."

Larry and I gasped. "Two-thousand dollars?" he said.

"But you need two cups of it, at least," said one of our guards.

Some of the UN guys laughed. "Then they'll just have to stay sick. They don't pay, they don't get it."

Larry shook his head in disapproval. "Idiots," I said.

"All right! Take all of it! That's it. Let's go!"

Larry shut the radio off. "This whole thing is getting worse by the minute." Then, the computer beeped again. Larry checked it. "Oh, dear."

"What?"

"There's been a lot of protesting and rioting and demonstrating. People are furious because of what they're doing to you. And…they're being…arrested!"

"Arrested? Who's arresting them?"

"The…the UN officials! They've declared temporary military power in the country.

I was getting sick of all this. I didn't know how much more I could take. "How much more will they do?"

"A lot more. They've also discovered one our tunnels. One of our secret tunnels! The one that leads to the room where we have the power potions!" Now, he sounded really concerned. Larry views those powers as sacred.

I was getting frantic now. "Stop them! Close the tunnels! Cause a cave-in! Seal it!"

"No, I had a better idea. I've already sent our guards down there. Here, here's a live video feed. It's from one of our underground security cameras."

He showed the feed on the laptop screen.

It showed a tunnel, with our guards on one side and the UN troops on the other. They met right in the middle. "Out of my way!" the UN soldier yelled.

"Please do not come any closer," said one of the guards in a calm voice. "These lead to the King's Bunkers. Only he and his family are allowed in there."

"I said for you to get out of my way!"

The guard said, "Does this mean you won't heed our warning and leave?"

"Get. Out. Of. My. Way. You. Garbage!"

The guard turned to the others and said, "Take out your swords, gentlemen." They did as he commanded. Eight super-sharp, double-sided swords pointed at the UN troops, who were probably too scared to remember they had guns.

"Are you threatening us?" the UN soldier said.

"In case you haven't noticed, we as the military of this country have the power to rule it without your help. LEAVE!"

"I can't believe it! This is a sacrilegious….oh! Come on, guys. Leave them alone." They started walking back. "We'll take each and every one of you to the court!"

I sighed with relief. "You know what we oughta do? Take all those valuables from the Treasury Room and the Secret Lab and transport them to the Secret Location."

Larry was about to agree when the computer beeped again. "Oh, my gosh! They're at our National Vault!"

"What?"

"They're at our Vault! Where we keep a lot of our gold and jewels!" He showed the video of the security camera. It showed a massive iron door with a single unarmed man guarding it. I don't know why there weren't any guards there. The UN troops arrived and surrounded him.

One of them pointed a gun at him. "Open this baby up. It's ours now. All of it."

"Well, as you see, there aren't any guards here and I'm unarmed and I…"

"OPEN IT!" He cocked his gun and pointed it straight at his head.

No, no, no. Don't open it. Don't open it, I kept saying to myself.

He opened it.

The gold was so bright that it shone like a golden sun. All the guards dropped their arms and covered their eyes. "We're going to go blind with this gold!"

"But it's all ours!"

"Yes, it's ours!"

That did it. I pushed Larry over and clicked a few keys on the keyboard. "Spiny, what are you doing?"

"You'll see." I hit Enter.

Before our very eyes, all the gold started falling. You see, there's a tunnel right underneath the Vault. And that action makes it open and all that gold and other stuff falls down beneath the ground and leads to another secret storage place.

"Wait a minute!"

"What's going on!"

"Call that Spiny!"

Larry and I stared at each other. "Expect a phone call," he said.

As if on cue, my phone rang at that second.


	8. Chapter 8

The rest of that week was the worst in my life. I wasn't even allowed out of my room to eat with my family. Then Larry told me that the UN soldiers had thrown out all of our food and had driven their tanks across our crops to make sure we didn't have anything to eat. They also killed a large amount of our livestock.

And he also mentioned that they locked up Kathy, Patty, Robert and Greeny in their rooms. They took all our jewelry, bracelets, rings and whatever money we had on us. They also talked about selling all our furniture and using the money to finance oil drilling in Amarkia.

But as bad as all that seemed, it wasn't anything near what was about to happen.

The computer beeped. Larry went to check it. "Live News. King Spiny Unofficial Ruler of Amarkia. WHAT?!"

I ran over to the computer. It was as plain as day. It was on all the major headlines. "What? You mean…I've been dethroned? I longer have any power whatsoever in the country?"

"Yeah. And now…UN will take full charge of government?!"

"They what?"

"And…they're going to take our force field machines and our algae oil refineries and take them to the US! To secure them under American hands?!"

I couldn't help it. I grabbed the first thing I saw: a hammer. I started pounding against the wall. I pounded and pounded and pounded. I was ENRAGED. I was FUMING. I had to let all that anger out.

"They can't do that!" I said, yelling at the top of my lungs. "They have no right."

I could tell Larry felt the same way. "I'm calling them right now!" He grabbed the phone. "Marge! I don't care if that's not your name. Contact me with…with…arg! I don't even know! With the guy in charge of those UN idiots who are taking our stuff away."

Ring. Ring. Ring.

Larry pushed the phone in my hands. "Hello?" said a voice.

"What do you think you're doing?!"

"What?"

"You have no right to take what's rightfully ours!"

"We're just…"

"I don't care! You are stealing! You are looting us! It's the same thing you've done in other countries!"

Well, that got him mad. "Hey! Don't say anything before your trial you'll regret! All right. We'll put the force field machines back. We don't even know how to unplug those things. But we will take 20% of the algae oil refineries."

"What?!"

"Either that or we take it all and put all of your citizens in prison camps."

"You wouldn't!"

"Don't tempt me. Take it or leave it. Goodbye, have a horrible day. I hope you die!" He hung up.

ARGH! I was SO angry!

"Temper, temper," Larry said.

"Oh, shut up!"

"Well, look on the bright side. They don't know peanuts about how to operate those machines. It'll take them centuries, literally, to find out. So we're not really losing anything." His phone beeped. "Oh, no!"

"What? What?"

"They located the hospital where we have the cancer cure stocked up."

"What? How did they find out?"

"I don't know! They're there. Actually, it's on live television, right now. They're trying to get in, but our guards are blocking the entrance."

He turned the TV in our room on. He didn't have to change the channel. This was happening in every single channel. Even in the ones about documentaries, sports, reality TV, and even kid shows. All the channels had the same story, even if they didn't have their own news station.

Anyways, the screen showed just what Larry had described. Our guards were completely blocking the entire front entrance of the hospital. The UN troops were trying to break in, but were being held back.

"I gave orders for them to block the entrance while the others hide the medicine," Larry said.

I fixed my eyes on the screen. The camera zoomed in. Tension was building between the two sides. Finally, something happened. One of the UN guys tried to get in through a hole. But our guards pinned him down and were able to disarm him. Then the camera went off the air.

"Oh. That must've been embarrassing," said Larry, laughing.

"I'm glad. I want this to be televised and shown on the world's major news channels. I want the whole world to know what the UN is doing to us and how they're treating us."

Larry stopped laughing and said, "Sir, yes, sir. We'll contact our Telecommunications Unit and give them the word." He began pacing back and forth. He was obviously thinking at a quick pace.

"I gave them orders to keep the UN troops out of there, until they get 93% of the stuff out."

"What? Only 93%? Why did leave that other 7%?"

"Spiny, if they went in and saw that it was empty, they'd know that we were hiding it in a secret location and they'd start looking. Pretty soon, it would be only a matter of time before they found it. Do you realize what would happen then?"

I sighed. "I don't want to even think about it."

Larry turned on a two-way radio. "This will let us hear anything that goes in between our guards and the UN soldiers."

He set it on the table. We both pulled up chairs and stared listening. We heard the crackle of static and voices in the background. "So, you finally came to your senses and let us in?" I guess that was one of the UN guys.

I heard a cabinet open and glass bottles rattling. "Hmm. Pretty good. This will sell at least $2,000 per ounce back in America."

Larry and I gasped. "Two-thousand dollars?" he said.

"But you need two cups of it, at least," said one of our guards.

Some of the UN guys laughed. "Then they'll just have to stay sick. They don't pay, they don't get it."

Larry shook his head in disapproval. "Idiots," I said.

"All right! Take all of it! That's it. Let's go!"

Larry shut the radio off. "This whole thing is getting worse by the minute." Then, the computer beeped again. Larry checked it. "Oh, dear."

"What?"

"There's been a lot of protesting and rioting and demonstrating. People are furious because of what they're doing to you. And…they're being…arrested!"

"Arrested? Who's arresting them?"

"The…the UN officials! They've declared temporary military power in the country.

I was getting sick of all this. I didn't know how much more I could take. "How much more will they do?"

"A lot more. They've also discovered one our tunnels. One of our secret tunnels! The one that leads to the room where we have the power potions!" Now, he sounded really concerned. Larry views those powers as sacred.

I was getting frantic now. "Stop them! Close the tunnels! Cause a cave-in! Seal it!"

"No, I had a better idea. I've already sent our guards down there. Here, here's a live video feed. It's from one of our underground security cameras."

He showed the feed on the laptop screen.

It showed a tunnel, with our guards on one side and the UN troops on the other. They met right in the middle. "Out of my way!" the UN soldier yelled.

"Please do not come any closer," said one of the guards in a calm voice. "These lead to the King's Bunkers. Only he and his family are allowed in there."

"I said for you to get out of my way!"

The guard said, "Does this mean you won't heed our warning and leave?"

"Get. Out. Of. My. Way. You. Garbage!"

The guard turned to the others and said, "Take out your swords, gentlemen." They did as he commanded. Eight super-sharp, double-sided swords pointed at the UN troops, who were probably too scared to remember they had guns.

"Are you threatening us?" the UN soldier said.

"In case you haven't noticed, we as the military of this country have the power to rule it without your help. LEAVE!"

"I can't believe it! This is a sacrilegious….oh! Come on, guys. Leave them alone." They started walking back. "We'll take each and every one of you to the court!"

I sighed with relief. "You know what we oughta do? Take all those valuables from the Treasury Room and the Secret Lab and transport them to the Secret Location."

Larry was about to agree when the computer beeped again. "Oh, my gosh! They're at our National Vault!"

"What?"

"They're at our Vault! Where we keep a lot of our gold and jewels!" He showed the video of the security camera. It showed a massive iron door with a single unarmed man guarding it. I don't know why there weren't any guards there. The UN troops arrived and surrounded him.

One of them pointed a gun at him. "Open this baby up. It's ours now. All of it."

"Well, as you see, there aren't any guards here and I'm unarmed and I…"

"OPEN IT!" He cocked his gun and pointed it straight at his head.

No, no, no. Don't open it. Don't open it, I kept saying to myself.

He opened it.

The gold was so bright that it shone like a golden sun. All the guards dropped their arms and covered their eyes. "We're going to go blind with this gold!"

"But it's all ours!"

"Yes, it's ours!"

That did it. I pushed Larry over and clicked a few keys on the keyboard. "Spiny, what are you doing?"

"You'll see." I hit Enter.

Before our very eyes, all the gold started falling. You see, there's a tunnel right underneath the Vault. And that action makes it open and all that gold and other stuff falls down beneath the ground and leads to another secret storage place.

"Wait a minute!"

"What's going on!"

"Call that Spiny!"

Larry and I stared at each other. "Expect a phone call," he said.

As if on cue, my phone rang at that second.


	9. Chapter 9

(ONE DAY BEFORE TRIAL.)

Location: Amarkian Armed Forces Main Office

"All right," said the UN general. He had laid out a map of all the Amarkian Armed Forces Units on the table. Several other superiors were around him. "So we divide the military up into several sections. America gets the best one obviously, because, well, we deserve only the best. And this other one goes to our special partner, the UK. And this one goes to..."

An Amarkian general burst into the room. "What's going on here?"

"Get out! This is not your army anymore! It belongs to us!"

"What? You have no right to make changes before the trial! Now get out!" They all pointed their guns at the UN officials.

"All right. Come on, let's go. We'll have our fun later."

As they were leaving, the grabbed their suitcase with their documents. But they were stopped before they could. "And the suitcase stays," said the Amarkian general.

"What?"

"I said that it stays!" He snatched it from the official's hands. He got angry and started protesting. "Don't you try to grab it!" said the general. "Now get out of here! It's not safe for you here anymore!"

(AT THE ROYAL PALACE.)

The situation was tense. The entire country felt like it was ready to blow. The entire world was holding its breath, waiting to see what would happen. On TV, radio, newspaper, Facebook, Twitter, and the whole nine yards. This was quickly becoming the most televised thing ever.

"Well, Spiny, you only have one day left here," said Larry.

"Did you have to remind me? I kept telling myself that this was all a dream."

He sighed. "They tried dividing the army up into sections and distribute them amongst the nations. Fortunately, they were stopped. We managed to kick them out of the military office. But we do expect a lot of trouble after you leave. That's when we'll initiate Hammerdown Protocol."

"What?"

"Hammerdown Protocol. That's when the Space Armies come down and began attacking." I should probably explain about our space armies. It may seem fake, but we have space armies stationed in distant planets and galaxies. In total, they're dozens of millions; bigger than any earth army. In times of distress, we can call upon them. They arrive in a question of minutes and can begin to operate.

"You think we'll need them?" I asked Larry.

"I don't think it's a matter of if we'll need. It's a question of when we're going to call them."

I sighed and lay back on my bed. "I'm so worried, Larry. About what will happen to my family after I leave. And my friends."

He nodded. "Yeah. I know what you mean. I was thinking…Lilia hasn't even come to visit you."

I sighed. The mention of her name not only made my heart start racing and made my stomach sour, it also brought wonderful memories. At that moment, a flood of emotions hit me. First happiness, then sadness, and finally a deep nostalgia.

I wondered what Lilia was doing at that moment.

"But you know what, Larry? I won't let them get away."

"Not by hairs on your chinny chin chin?"

I glared at him. "I don't even shave yet, you dope! But a more appropriate expression would be, 'Not by the hairs on my head head head.'"

"I guess so."

"You know, I've changed my hairstyle over the years. Remember back in the 50s I had a DA haircut?"

He nodded. "I remember. And in the 60's you had a pompadour hairdo."

"And in the 70s, you started to wear your hair longer, like the Barry Gibb. You hair was just like his."

"Except my hair's black and without the moustache and the beard."

"Then in the 80s you had mullet haircut. In the 90s you had a business haircut."

"Then in 2002 I changed to my current style. I wear it in layers and wavy, and it covers my ears and reaches my shoulders."

"Like Tom Cruise?" Larry said.

"What?!"

"Bruce Willis? Uh…Vin Diesel?...Chuck Norris with a BB gun! I give up."

I glared at him. "Will you please shut up? At a time like, you're making jokes?"

"You're the one who brought up the subject of hair."

I…oh. Okay. Maybe did. "Well…I'm scared. I guess I'm just trying to distract myself." I mean, when you're scared to death, you have to take your mind off things, right?

(MEANWHILE.)

Location: Force Field Central Operations Center

"Come on, move it!" yelled the UN official. The soldiers were struggling with all their strength to rip off the force field machine. "Hurry! This will make us millionaires!"

A young lieutenant struggled to disconnect the confusing web of wires. "You…are…coming off…whether…you…like…or…not!"

Their work was interrupted when a group of Amarkian soldiers burst in. "What on earth do you think you're doing?"

The UN official ordered his men to point their guns at the Amarkians. "What are you doing?! This is all ours now! You have no right to be here anymore! We're taking this machine to where it belongs: in America."

"That's exactly where it doesn't belong! Your country has caused so much suffering in it and in the world. Now put that back! Or else I'll order my men to fire and we'll all die!"

A tense silence hung in the air. "Oh…all right! But we'll be back. Then you'll be sorry."

"I'm sure you will be."

(AT A UN FIELD OFFICE.)

The UN official laid out a map across the table. "Okay, we'll divide up into a dozen or so units. We take over everything. Remember, everything in this country is ours. If there are protests or riots…well, you know what to do. Clamp them down with force and have no mercy. These are inferior beings that don't deserve humane treatment."

Then he pointed on the map. "Our next objective is to find where they're hiding their gold. We don't know where it is, but we have ways of making talk."

"But sir," said another official, "even with this, we can't do anything until after the court makes its decision."

"Oh, don't worry, soldier. They'll declare him guilty. And when that happens, we begin our operations. After all, with the King out of the country and declared guilty, nobody will be able to do anything."

"What if, just suppose, that they don't declare him guilty?"

He smiled. "Don't worry, they will. I mean, abortion and LGBT are both controversial and strong. But we need something stronger. What if something worse even happened?"

"You mean…you intend to do something to make his situation worse?"

He nodded. "I'll make sure that he's declared guilty and given the worst punishment."

"How?"

"Don't worry. I'll take care of it."

(BACK AT THE PALACE.)

Larry and I stared at the clock. The seconds seemed like hours. The minutes like days. The hours like weeks. I couldn't take it any longer. The suspense was killing me. Tomorrow morning would be it. It was now late evening.

This would probably the last night I'd sleep in Amarkia. I was sitting at my desk, with my suitcases ready for tomorrow. I kept remembering those great moments in life. And even those that were not so great. But all those problems of the past seemed vague in comparison. I'd give anything to be in those situations instead.

I fell asleep on the desk. All that stress really took its toll. I had one last dream of Lilia and I. She was wearing a gorgeous spring gown with flowers in her hair. I had a blue dress shirt and a gray coat. We were in a field of flowers and blossoming cherry trees. The pink of the trees made her brown hair and her red cheeks more beautiful than what they already were.

I woke up to the alarm. It was nine in the morning. And no, it was not sunny. The skies looked gray and…frankly, gloomy. Melancholy. Even depressed. Thick dark gray clouds covered the entire sky.

It was like the mood of the day. Larry put his hand on my shoulder. "It's time to go." I nodded and sighed, feeling bluer than a sad jazz player.

I grabbed my suitcases and stepped out of my room. When I got down to the front door, the whole gang was there. My family and friends. My loved ones. Kathy came up to me, her eyes red and watery. She hugged me and kissed my cheek. "Goodbye, Spiny."

"Goodbye, sis."

Patty came up and hugged me too.

"Take care, cousin," I said to her.

Then I came to Robert and Greeny. "Remember what I said, Robert. I trust you. I know you'll be a good leader." He bit his lip, trying to hold back the tears. I wanted him to be strong for the family's sake. I kissed Greeny on the head and run my hands through his hair. "Bye, Greeny."

"Spiny, please don't go!" he threw his hands around me and started crying. I almost lost it myself.

"I'll be okay. You take care of the girls and mind your brother, okay?"

He nodded and sniffled. "Okay."

I stood up and went over to Roger. He hugged me. "Take care, man."

"You too, dude." I pointed at Darla. "Take care of him. Or her."

Darla smiled and hugged me too. I have to admit, that even wearing her baseball cap and her life-preserver, she still looked cute. "I'll miss you," she said.

"So will I."

Dimetroodon and Rudy were also too. I hugged Rudy and shook hands…or tried to, with Dimetroodon.

Then I went to Lilia. We threw our arms around each other. She started sobbing. I ran my hands through her hair. Her soft, silky hair. I looked at her straight in the face. Into her beautiful caramel/honey brown eyes. I gently wiped the tears from her face and caressed her cheek.

Then I kissed her affectionately and softly. "I love you," I whispered.

She gave me a small, sad smile. "I love you, too." She kissed my cheek and sniffled.

Then I went to Larry. I shook his hand and he pulled into a killer hug. "Thanks for everything," he said.

I shook my head. "No. Thank you. For being everything to me. You've been my brother, my best friend, my protector…even a father, almost."

I wasn't mistaken this time. His eyes were getting watery. Then he spoke to me in a tone of voice that I'd never heard before. A quiet, raspy voice on the point of crying. "I just want to tell you…that…I love you….very much….brother."

I looked one last time around me and at the Gang. My family. The best one I could have.

Then one of the officials knocked on the door and told me it was time. I grabbed my suitcases and stepped outside. I wanted to look back one last time, but the official shut the door and yelled at them to not open it.

As I was walking down the front steps, one of the officials who had his back turned to me, threw a rock in my way, making me trip. I wasn't too hurt.

But one of my suitcases came loose and came open.

When I saw what was inside it, I wanted to die right then and there.

It was full of guns.


	10. Chapter 10

I was too astonished to say anything. I was speechless. I was in shock.

"Oh! Exporting guns illegally, huh?" said one of the officials. "We'll see what the court has to say about this!"

I stuttered. "But, but, but…"

He struck me in the face with a wrench. I could feel my cheekbones cracking and my nose started to bleed. "GO! GET IN!"

He kicked me, literally into the truck.

They started the engine and we were on the way. I felt so weak. Feeble. Pathetic. I had been beaten too many times. I hadn't even had a chance to eat. And all this anxiety took its toll on my body. I threw up in the back of the truck.

We stopped about half an hour later. They opened the doors and grabbed me by the arms and took me to a small UN plane that was waiting. There were hordes of people around us, angrily protesting and holding up signs.

One of them said, UN is a bunch of Modern-day Nazis! Another one said, UN=Dictators. And another one said, Down with human governments!

I was pushed into the plane and sat down near the front near the window seat. After they closed the doors, we started to take off.

I lay my head back against the headrest and closed my eyes. "HEY! STAY AWAKE, IF YOU KNOW WHAT'S BEST FOR YOU!"

Okay, I kept my eyes open.

I looked out the window as the plane accelerated on the runway. Finally we took to the air. I saw the city fly by. We headed north. The UN court is in the Netherlands.

When we reached flying altitude, I could see from Sauropolis all the way up to the Northern Plains. I looked to my side. The UN guy who had yelled at me to stay awake had fallen asleep. Hypocrites.

I was tired of being yelled at. I closed eyes and let my breathing slow down until I fell into a deep sleep.

(BACK THE PALACE.)

The whole Gang was in the living room, waiting anxiously for something to happen. It had been hours since Spiny left. Or to put it more accurately, since he'd been taking away. The image of his charming, warm, and friendly smile was on everyone's minds.

Patty walked in carrying a silver tray. Real silver. "I made some sandwiches for everyone." She set it down on the table in the living room.

"I'm not hungry," said Lilia.

"Me neither," said Darla.

"I'll take some," said Dimetroodon, grabbing four sandwiches and swallowing them whole. He belched loudly. "DIMETROODON!" everyone yelled.

"What? I can't help that I have natural digestive processes. Everyone has them, you know, even actresses and super models."

Darla rolled her eyes. "Oh, seriously!"

Greeny tugged on Kathy's blouse. "When will Spiny come back?"

She looked at him solemnly. "I…I don't know, Greeny."

"Tomorrow?"

"I don't know."

"I'm not sure. Listen, why don't you run up to your room and play?"

He sighed and looked down. "Okay." He jogged up the stairs to his room.

Roger said, "Look, it's not going to do Spiny any good if we just sit here and mope."

Kathy stood up. "Roger's right! This whole thing is unfair! It's unjust! Spiny doesn't deserve any of this! He's the most wonderful person on this earth!"

"But what can we do?" Rudy said.

"We're still the Royal Family! We have to prove that we're not going to let them get away with this!"

Larry stood up. "Yeah! So while you guys think of a plan, I'm going to rest in bed for a while." Before anyone could say anything, he sprinted upstairs. He locked the door behind him. He pulled out the radio from under the bed. "SA, this is Larry. SA this is Larry, come in SA." Only static. "Don't you dumbbells know what SA means? Space Armies!"

A tough sounding, accented voice answered. "We hear you Larry."

"King is on way to UN court. Start getting ready. Decision will most be likely be made by early evening."

"Roger that! Initiating initial phase of Hammerdown Protocol. Stay in touch and keep us informed."

"Will do. Over and out." He switched the radio off. He walked to the window and looked out. Tanks of the UN were now patrolling the streets. They'd taken over all government offices and major businesses.

But now they had a plan.

Even if they were going to be defeated, they weren't going to down in silence.

(THE HAGUE, NETHERLANDS.)

5:54 pm, local time

Peace Palace.

When we got to the airport, we took a 77-minute drive to the Peace Palace, where the UN Court is based. It was right near the coast. There was a flood of reporters there. They had come from many countries. The US, Germany, Netherlands, Australia, China, Japan, Russia, South Africa, Mexico, Argentina, France…everywhere!

We parked went through the gates and parked at the front entrance. Then we stepped in. Boy, was I surprised. It was really luxurious! Giant stairs, granite floors, everything! As we walked to the courtroom, we passed a section that had statues of famous peace-seekers, like Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, and others.

When we stepped into the courtroom, there were a lot of people there. There were three rows on each side of the room for the public. Spectators. Audience. Whatever! On the far right, were some photographers and journalists. I guess they'd been given special permission to enter.

Up in the front, was a large rectangular table where the judges sat. I guess that sixteen judges can serve as the jury too. They hadn't come in yet. I sat at the defendant's table. Alone. I'd tried to get a lawyer, but he was threatened with death. So I'd have to do this alone.

On the other side was the prosecutor. Or the bailiff. Whatever.

There were three men there. They were dressed funny. Like from the late 18th century. Two of them even had those ridiculous hairdos that judges or lawyers wear. That ones that make them look like Wolfgang Mozart or something.

A while later, the judges all entered and everyone stood up.

Once they were all in place, the main judge, said, "Court is now in session! QUIET!"

The courtroom clerk, "Hear ye, hear ye! Please be…"

The judge said, "I SAID QUIET!" He slammed his hands on the table.

The courtroom clerk stared at him. He cleared his throat and sat down.

"Will the bailiff and defendant please rise?" said another of the judges.

I stood up along with…my bailiff.

Boy, was this going to be fun!

For time sake, let's skip on to where I was allowed to speak.

"Very well," said the main judge. "You may sit down," he said to the bailiff. Who happened to be a representative of the UN.

"What do you have to say for yourself," the judge said to me.

I stood up. Well, here we go. I took a deep breath. "Your Honor, it is true that I do not allow pro-abortion and pro-LGBT laws in my country. However, I have good reason to."

"I object!" said the UN guy.

"Quiet! You've had your turn. Objection sustained. You may continue, King Spiny."

"Thank you, your honor." Anyways, I went saying why I did what I did. Why I thought abortion was wrong and we consider it first-degree murder. And how we think that LGBT are all grossly immoral.

"But, I want to add that we do not persecute or mistreat those kinds of people. They are allowed jobs, education, and prosperity. However, they don't have certain privileges and cannot participate in government."

One of the judges said, "Those are personal decisions."

"It may be, Your Honor, but they are wrong decisions. And just because they are personal doesn't mean they won't affect others, for bad or good." I took another deep breath. "And that is why I believe in what I do. That's all I have to say for myself," I said, sitting down.

The main judge stood up and said, "The judges will know proceed to the jury room to decide the verdict. Court's adjourned until seven o'clock."

They left the room and sat back in the chair, staring at the ceiling. The UN representative gave me a dirty look as he exited.

(MEANWHILE.)

Location: 45 million miles from Earth. Secret location. Space Army Base

Aboard the SAF mother ship

The young page ran into the main operations room. He walked up to the general, who was looking out the window into the vast starry space outside. "Sir!"

He turned around. "Yes, Roger?"

"The King is now waiting for the verdict. We are now on standby. Our Earth contact has requested that we initiate next phase of Hammerdown Protocol."

He nodded. "So…they might need us. When was the last time?"

"About 300,000 years ago, sir."

"Ah, yes. When the Amarkian Civil War occurred and we had to save the King of then, his ancestor."

"But now things are quite different sir."

"Yes, I know. We'll have to use a lot more subtleness. Order all ships to launch towards Earth."

"Yes, sir." He ran to the dashboard and spoke into the microphone. "Attention all personnel and all ships. Initiating Phase 2 of Hammerdown Protocol. Please proceed to battle stations. All ships ready to launch and set course for Earth!"

(BACK IN AMARKIA.)

Larry had just given the request that the Space Armies start coming to Earth. He waited patiently in the living room with the others with the TV and radio turned on. The entire planet's population had turned to the nearest TV screen, radio, or newspaper station.

In New York and Tokyo, tens of thousands of people had congregated in the plazas and streets, watching and waiting.

Even in the poorer nations, people gathered around 10-inch TV screens or hand-operated radios to hear.

Tensions were mounting. A deadly feeling began to rest on the entire country of Amarkia. The country was ready to explode. The world waited and waited.

(UN COURT SESSION.)

Finally, the judges came back in and sat down. Then, the main judge stood up. "Will the bailiff and the defendant please rise? Thank you. The jury has come to its decision. The verdict is…"

He didn't say anything. Oh, please just say it! The suspense is killing me! He opened his mouth and moved his lips. Then he said, "….guilty!"


	11. Chapter 11

I felt my heart stop beating completely. My brain froze. My entire circulation and breathing came to a halt. My body's natural processes came to a standstill.

The word kept ringing in my ears. Guilty…guilty…guilty.

There was a quiet murmur amongst the present. Even the reporters had gone into shock.

"The sentence is…indefinite dethronement, removal of power from the Royal Family, dissolving of the monarchy, destruction of Amarkian law, life-prison for Royal Family…and death by shooting for King."

DEATH?! Wait just a cotton-tail picking minute!

"Take him away!"

"Now hold it!"

I wasn't even allowed to speak my peace, as they say. They grabbed me and took out me out. When we exited the building, the entire place became lighted up with cameras flashing and reporters shouting.

They kicked me into the car and we drove out the gates. I could tell everyone knew what had happened. I've learned to know things like that.

We drove for about an hour or so, until we'd reached the countryside. I was taken out of the car and put into a helicopter. I had no idea where they were taking me. I had no idea what would happen to or my family or my country.

But I did know one thing: several world leaders that had seen me get on the helicopter down on the ground erupted into cheers and happy shouting.

Well, at least somebody was enjoying all this.

I sure wasn't.

(250,000 miles from Earth.)

"They've declared him, guilty, sir!" the page said.

"Very well. Contact our Earth agent and inquire as to our next actions."

"Yes, sir."

(BACK AT THE PALACE.)

"What time is it?" said Dimetroodon.

"It's almost seven," said Rudy. "What's taking so long?"

"I have no idea," said Roger. "But don't worry. Once they know it, they'll announce it."

The radio program suddenly got more interesting. "The verdict was issued about an hour ago. And…folks, this is the decision. In the words of the Secretary-General of the UN, 'an unbiased and just decision.' And the verdict is…the former ruler of Amarkia is guilty."

A heavy silence filled the room. Everyone stared at each other. No one could speak. "And the sentence will be…death by shooting. Meanwhile, the former King will be kept in a heavily guarded single-cell prison in the rural areas of the Netherlands."

Kathy jumped. "Death?! No, no, no! They can't do that!"

Lilia broke into tears.

Larry ran up to the room and contacted the nearing Space Armies. "Okay. Come on down, but don't attack just yet. Just come down."

(IN THE MOTHER SHIP.)

"Sir! We've received new orders! We are to land discreetly in Stealth Mode, but not attack until we are ordered to do so."

The general nodded. "Very well. Order to deactivate all non-Amarkian satellites in the area."

"Yes, sir!" The page left the room and ran down the halls of the massive ship. He burst into the control room. "Attention, men!"

All of the troops came to order. "We are to descend but not attack until further notice. However, we will deactivate all non-Amarkian satellites around the area. Now go do your jobs! You know how to and there's no backing out now!"

All the men ran to their positions and stared at the buttons.

(BACK AT THE PALACE.)

"We have now breaking news!" said the announcer on TV. "A few minutes ago we got reports that NASA had lost contact with all of its satellites, including the International Space Station and the Hubble Space Telescope. The countries of Africa, the Middle East, south Europe, and all weather satellites of the areas surrounding Amarkia have all also lost contact with Earth."

Larry had his eyes fixed on the screen. The time has come, he thought. His deep thoughts were interrupted by the sound of fire truck sirens. He ran to the window and looked toward the street. He saw lines of fire engines escorted by army trucks. From Sauropolis, he saw small patches of smoke rising from a dozen or so places.

His phone rang. "Hello? Yes, it's me. What?! Seventeen fires in the city? How did that happen? Oh…one of them was a car and the family crashed because the father was shocked at the news of the verdict? Another one was a fuel station that threw algae gas all over the place? Same reason. What about the others. WHAT?! The UN officials started the fires? They want…to meet me…to discuss…the giving over of the country?! Oh, I'll be there, all right." He hung up.

Boy, will I be there! Give the country to the UN? Over my dead body!

He grabbed his Taser and his gun and flew down the stairs, nearly crashing into Kathy. "Hey! What are you doing?!"

"Sorry! Got to run! Be right back!" He ran out the door into Spiny's 3.2 million-dollar car and drove like a maniac down the driveway, nearly running over the Palace Guards. He turned onto the street, the tires squealing.

He got to the Conference Room in record time. He must've done 120 mph! When he walked in with other Amarkian officials, the UN men had just opened a bottle of champagne. "Well," said Larry. "You certainly seem to be happy about all this."

They smiled at him. "Of course we are." The UN general turned to the others. "A toast…to the death of a dictator and the inheritance of his prosperous nation."

Larry was to fight his temper. He wanted so badly to rip them to shreds. "All right, what did you call us for?"

"Oh, yeah!" The UN main official walked up to him and yelled in his face, "Give it over!"

"Give what over?"

"You heard what the court said. This country is ours now! We're going to dismantle your worthless nation! Hand over the constitution!"

Larry shook his head. "Before I hand you the constitution, there are certain terms and agreements you need to come to an agreement to." He handed him a clipboard with several pages.

"These mention that you will not severely affect life in Amarkia. For example, you will continue using our energy sources and never drill for oil, coal or natural gas."

He ripped the paper in two. "Who cares about the stupid environment? We need money, not trees! Trees are useless, like you!"

Larry took out another paper. "I have another copy."

The UN official ripped that one too.

"I have three truckloads of copies, in case you want to continue," said Larry.

"You'll be sorry for this!"

"And I also might add that you have to take good care of our algae oil reserves and keep them in top shape. They require a lot of maintenance."

"We're going to ship those to America, where they belong."

"And as for logging, you can't cut down more than 13% of the forests. And for every tree you cut down, you have to plant three more in its place."

"What?! Do I look like I'm from Greenpeace or something?!"

"And two other things. We have these sun collectors and store the energy in pools of water. They're great when you're in an energy crisis, or during a blizzard or ice storm or volcanic eruption."

"What? How you can store solar energy in water?"

"Why are you so surprised? You made a documentary about it in America. But you didn't have the technology for it, so we did it. We even gave you credit! Oh, and the other thing: our self-sustaining planes."

"Self-sustaining planes? That's impossible. You're lying!"

"It was Germany's idea. But they're government rejected the notion as ridiculous so we bought the idea. It cost us $25 million. That's not impossible!"

"What if I said no despite all this?"

"Either that or we do it the hard way. You choose."

The UN official remained silent. "Oh…all right." He signed his signature on the agreement form.

Larry didn't notice it and neither did anyone else, but when Larry checked the paper after being signed, the UN official crossed his fingers behind his back.


	12. Chapter 12

(THREE DAYS LATER.)

Location: Force Field Central

"You got those cables unhooked?" the UN official said to the soldier.

"Yes, sir!"

"All right then. Start tying it to the chopper. If we hurry we can get this thing out of here in an hour."

Out of nowhere, Larry appeared. "What…are you doing, stealing our force field machine?!"

The UN official smiled at him. "What do you mean stealing? This is ours. We're taking it to America so it can be used to the full."

Larry's lips started twitching and a growl started forming in his throat. "You…put…that…back…now!"

"Oh, yeah? Who's going to make me?"

"I will. You agreed to a written statement that you'd leave this alone!"

"Well, guess what, fossil?" He showed his hands. "I crossed my fingers, so it doesn't count. We can and will do whatever we please. And if you object, well too bad!"

"You have no right."

He walked up to Larry. "You don't have any authority, you little twerp!"

"How dare you! The new King will hear of this!"

The UN official laughed in his face. "There won't be any new King. After Spiny is rightfully and justly executed, the entire Royal Family will be separated permanently and taken to different reeducation camps. They will not be allowed to have contact with anyone. And if they object or try to get out of it…well, let's just say that it won't be to your liking."

Larry sighed. There was no point in arguing with him. "All right, all right. You win. Take the force field machine."

The official sneered. "Very good! You've come to your senses." He turned to the other soldiers. "Take her up."

The UN helicopter's blades started whirring and the chopper lifted into the air. It carried the machine in its net hanging from below.

Without warning, Larry pulled out a machine gun and fired at the cables repeatedly. They came lose and the force field machine landed with a bang on the ground. The helicopter lost control and started twirling and spinning down towards the ground. It landed into a fiery ball of smashed metal and plastic.

The UN official was speechless for a minute. He turned to Larry. "What's the idea?!"

"LEAVE OUR STUFF ALONE! THIS IS NOT STEALING! IT'S LOOTING!" Larry was angry like he'd never been before in his entire existence.

Behind Larry, several hundred soldiers, tanks, army trucks, and choppers appeared. They all pointed their arms at the official. "You'll be sorry for this!" he said, running off.

(AT THE PALACE. FIFTEEN MINUTES LATER.)

Greeny was reading his favorite book. He couldn't concentrate. He kept asking himself at what Spiny would come home. He gave up asking the girls a long time ago. They kept saying that they didn't know.

Robert lay back on the sofa, thinking about the whole situation. He was getting desperate. What would he do now that he might be King any minute? He didn't know whether or not he could handle it.

The front doors suddenly came crashing down loudly. Everyone jumped. Kathy and Patty ran in from the kitchen. A flood of UN soldiers with huge guns invaded the room. They began overturning furniture, breaking windows, shattering lamps and pictures. One of them struck the TV on the wall with the back of his gun.

"What are you doing?!" said Kathy.

"Quiet, baby! If you don't want to be punished!"

He grabbed her by the arm and started taking her. "Let go of me!"

He struck her in the face. "I said quiet!"

Robert ran towards the soldier and punched him in the face. "Get away from my sister!"

"Get him!"

The four ran out of there and headed down the hallways. The soldiers started firing at them. Robert saw the secret entrance to the Bunker system in front of him. He pushed Kathy in first. They turned around and saw the soldiers no more than twenty feet away.

Robert turned to Kathy. "Go, jump in!"

"No, you jump! If we're going to have a King, you have to be alive."

"But, I…"

"Shut up!" She pushed him in.

The soldiers grabbed Kathy and Greeny and dragged them away. They placed handcuffs on both and put clothes around their mouth and blindfold. "I hope your brother said goodbye. Because the next time either sees each other, it's going to be in the grave!" said the UN official, laughing and holding a gun at Kathy's head.

Larry came out from under the overturned sofa when he heard them leave. He was running out of time, he knew it. He scurried down the hallway to The Bunker. When he got there, Patty and Robert were sitting on their respective beds. The Bunker resembled a doomsday shelter in almost every way. They had enough supplies to last 4 years.

"What happened?" said Robert anxiously.

Larry shook his head. "They took Kathy and Greeny."

Patty started crying out of fear. "Oh, you guys! What are we going to do?"

Larry walked up to Robert. "You're in charge now, buddy-oh."

Robert's heart felt like it was going to burst. "But-but-but…"

"Never mind that! You have to take full charge now. Spiny's not capable of running the country. You have to do things now."

Robert stood up and pushed the hair out of his face. "Well…then I want….a chocolate sundae."

"Ah….what?! Okay, okay! They're in the freezer! But you better start thinking buddy-o. We may have World War III looming on our heads!" Larry turned to the guards at the entrance of The Bunker. "Whatever happens, don't let anyone in here! For any reason. We cannot trust anyone anymore."

He turned back to Patty and Robert. "I have to go. I'm not going to stand around and do nothing while they do this to us." He grabbed his Taser gun and a submachine gun and ran out to the surface.

As he ran out to the streets, he bumped smack into a UN official. "What are you doing, squirt?"

Larry pointed the submachine gun, which was almost as big as him. "Don't call me squirt, you big-shot! Now…you have no right to kidnap the King's sister and youngest brother!"

He laughed. "Listen, you want to keep out of trouble? Then you hand us over the government. Although that's not necessary; we are already in charge here. As you will see next."

Larry cocked his gun. "What…are…you…planning?"

"You'll have to wait and see…squirt!"

(AT THE AIRPORT.)

Hordes of people had gathered at the airport. Several had packed up their things and were fleeing from what many were calling The Invasion. Suddenly, the front doors crashed down and hundreds of UN soldiers flooded in. The airport was filled with screaming and shouting. The UN soldiers grabbed as many people as possible and arrested them.

One of the airport personnel said to one of them, "What are you doing?!"

"We're taking all these people!"

"What? What for?!"

"You've all been brainwashed. You're going to be taken to reeducation camps. And we're also declaring a state of martial law."

"Martial law? What? You can't do that?"

He pointed his gun at the man. "We just did. And if anybody objects…" They both heard the sound of a gunshot, followed by loud crying.

Larry looked in awe from outside through a window. He couldn't believe what was happening. They're not just looting. Now they're massacring. This is unacceptable. His deep thoughts were interrupted when he got a call.

"Larry! Larry!" said a voice.

"Who? What is it?"

"Here…from the border. A huge army of UN tanks came to the border. We set up the iron walls…but they all fired at once…it wasn't enough. They made a huge hole in the gate. They're pouring in! It's…it's like a flood! Like a deluge! And we're getting reports of the same thing on the Northwestern Gate!"

Larry was silent, trying to recover from the shock of the entire situation. His eyes drifted back to the streets. Rows of hundreds of UN soldiers with their distinguishing blue helmets came marching down the street.

"All right!" said Larry. "We're going to undergo the Hammerdown Operation."

"Space Armies?"

"That's right! We've been friendly too long. Now we have to fight back."

(AT A SECRET SPACE ARMY FORT IN RURAL AMARKIA.)

"We're all set up when the time comes, sir. Construction of Temporary Military Base is finished," the young page said.

"Very well. All we have to do now is wait." Just then, an official burst in to the room, out of breath. "What is it, Commander?" the general asked.

"We've…we've got the go. We've received orders to attack. It's started."

The three men stared at each other. The general cleared his throat. "Well then…I guess its playtime, isn't it? Get the men ready, quickly! We attack in ten minutes!"

"Yes, sir," the page said. He grabbed his hat and ran out the door.

It has started, the general thought to himself.

(TIMES SQUARE, NEW YORK. IN FRONT OF THE BIG SCREEN.)

By now, the entire population of the city had gathered in the plaza. Some had brought cots, sleeping bags and camping tents. Their only interest was what was happening in the mysterious and perplexing country of Amarkia.

The newsman on the giant screen said, "We have just received some new information. The UN peacekeeping troops have crashed through the Eastern and Northwestern Gates of Amarkia. Folks, it shames me to have to show you this. But we have no other choice." A video began to show. "Here, we see the UN troops invading the Sauropolis International Airport and arresting citizens at random. It is reported that at least have received gunshot wounds and that Princess Kathy and Prince Greeny have been kidnapped by UN officials. Rumors are also circulating, also they haven't been confirmed, that the UN has declared martial law and has suspended all civil rights."

A huge collective gasp arose from the plaza. The world began to realize what has happening. This was not just what had been planned: to simply remove a monarch. An entire country and its innocent citizens were being treated like Jews by the Nazis.

Only the Nazis now were the organization that the world had hoped for would bring peace: the UN.


	13. Chapter 13

(NEAR RED HOUSE, NEW YORK, USA.)

Boy was I having fun! After my trail, they decided to move me to a permanent prison in America. It seemed like forever since I'd seen my family. My entire body ached. I'd been beaten every day. Kicked, punched, struck with guns, and whipped. I was also starving. All I had every day was a small cup of uncooked white rice and warm water.

I felt like I had a fever. When I asked if I could see the prison doctor, you know what the UN official said. "Sure, let him make the autopsy on you after we shoot you." So much for hospitality, right?

I never felt so…lonely. Helpless. Defenseless. I was starving, thirsty, sick, mistreated, abused, laughed at, unfairly punished, and…I was losing hope. I wasn't even allowed to use the phone or call my friends and family to say goodbye. They said that I deserved that and that they deserved to suffer.

Oh, the horrible things they said about my Amarkia. They used every single dirty joke from A to Z. And when they talked about my family and friends…I really wanted to break their mouths. But when they talked about Lilia…when I asked if I could arrange for her to visit me one last time, you know what one of them said? "Sure, as long as she shows us how she makes love to you personally."

And another one said, "Too bad you won't be around to help her raise her child."

When they said that, I wanted so badly to exterminate them! But there was nothing I could do. My execution was scheduled for that afternoon. They had even bought expensive champagne and gourmet foods to celebrate my death and the death of the monarchy.

Today, July 12, would be the last day of my life.

And I hadn't even had a chance to do two things: have a dinner at Olive Garden's and visit Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming. I sighed as I sat in my empty, windowless, dark cell. I sat in a corner and curled up into a ball. I wanted to fall asleep so that I would wake up and this whole thing would be a terrible nightmare.

I heard the jingling of keys and the clanking of metal. The cell door opened. The light hurt my eyes. I hadn't seen the light of day in days now. The prison guard had a UN official behind him. "You!"

I tried speaking, but my throat was too weak. I just mouthed. "What?"

"Well, today's the big day, huh?" he said, smiling.

I rolled my eyes and looked away. Well, I was glad he was going to enjoy my death. I wasn't exactly jumping up and down of joy, you know? Who would be? I was darn sure that he wouldn't be.

"Well, you see later…alligator!" he left, laughing so hard that I thought he'd bust a rib. I hoped he did.

I closed my eyes and lay my head back against the thick concrete wall. I wanted to dream something wonderful just one more time.

My deep, last-thoughts-of-life were interrupted when I heard a voice on the TV that was on the wall. "Breaking news of the last…well, second to be exact. We've had confirmed reports that an Amarkian plane was seen in American airspace."

What? Amarkian plane? Flying in American airspace?! That got my attention. I crawled over to the door and put my ear to it. "We can see here the Amarkian Plane flying very quickly over New York City. The last time it was seen, it was over Corning, NY."

I could not believe what happened next. And believe me, you will not believe it either, so brace yourself.

Not two seconds after that, I was hit by a loud booming noise. The entire prison shook violently. It was like a huge, loud earthquake or a sonic boom. Then, an explosion. I fell to the ground, trying to cover myself. Bricks, concrete, plaster, and metal flew everywhere. A flood of bright sunlight hit me. But it was hazy, because of all the dust.

I coughed, and struggled to get up. I waved at the air in front of me, trying to clear the dust to see if I could see anything. I saw a huge object about 100 feet in front of me. What was that?! It had wings…a nose…a tail…and…Larry…wait, what?

LARRY?!

He was standing there at the base of the plane, looking at me. "Get in here, you idiot!"

I didn't hesitate, and much less when I heard shouting and shooting behind me. I jumped into the plane, making just as one of the UN officials shot a bullet. Really, I felt the wind of it as it went past me!

I'd barely sat down, when the plane accelerated suddenly and lifted into the air. We were sure in a hurry. The plane jolted up and down as if we were in severe turbulence. I turned to Larry, "How did you know where I was?"

"I hacked into the computer that monitored your tracking device."

"Oh." I sighed. "How are things?"

He shook his head. "Things are…really bad. Martial law has been declared, the Eastern and Northwestern Gates were destroyed and now there's hundreds of UN tanks pouring in. And…they kidnapped Kathy and Greeny."

I felt my blood freeze. "They what?!"

"I don't think they're going to kill them."

"They…they said they would kill them."

"Look, Spiny, right now we have no idea where they took them. So we can't do anything. I already sent several Units of the National Guard to search for them. But we need the military for other things right now."

I nodded. "All right. I'll just keep thinking that everything's going to be all right."

"The Space Armies are already here. They've begun attacking. And the entire Amarkian Royal Armed Forces are all out. We've also begun the shutdown of our biggest farms and crop fields to protect our food supply."

"What about the power potions?"

"Right now, they're safe where they are. What I'm concerned about is that they discovery them in their natural state. There's lots of them in the Crystal Caverns under the mountains."

"What would happen if they found them?"

"Hmm. Then we would be in serious trouble. But that's unlikely, thankfully."

I looked out the window. We were now over the Atlantic. My eyes fixed themselves over the way the sun beamed down on the rippling waves. I couldn't believe this was happening! One minute I'd been another innocent prisoner, and now I was going back home. But I knew that it wouldn't be the same for quite a while.

"Sir!" someone said.

HUH? I turned around. It was the flight attendant. She was handing me a tray with food on it. "We made you a special lunch, sir. We know how they starved you there. So we made your favorite. Cooked salmon with garlic, onion, and green bell pepper. Garlic bread-sticks, a small salad with cheese and tamarind soft drink." She set it in front of me.

I smiled back at her. "Thank you."

The smell of the warm food was so pleasing that it made me dizzy. Believe me after eating 6 ounces of white rice and warm water for several days; you really learn what hunger is. Not only was the meal exquisite, it also helped me get my energy back.

I grabbed a blanket and snuggled up. I put back my seat and closed my eyes, trying to get a little shuteye.

I had a pretty good nap.

It was the first real good sleep that I'd had in about a week and a half. I thought of all the things I had to do in order to get the UN out of Amarkia and restore everything. Just thinking of all that work made me even more tired.

I really was out of this world. I mean, I hadn't slept that good in quite a while.

But before you could say…well, I don't know. Anyways, before you knew it, Larry was shouting in my ear, "Spiny, Spiny, Spiny, Spiny!"

I jumped. "What, what, what, what?"

"Get your seatbelt on, hurry!"

"Why? What's happening?!"

"JUST DO IT!"

I did as he said…which is not common. Anyway, I'd barely clicked my seatbelt when the plane started spinning violently. We were doing circles in the air! Then we went down…FAST! And then up again! The nose up the plane tilted directly towards the sky. The whole thing was shaking. The plane, the seats…my brains.

Then, we started spinning again. It was horrible. You might think it was funny in a way, but it wasn't. Get into a dryer and you'll know how it felt…about a thousandth of it, anyway.

That's when I saw the problem. Well, two. Behind were four UN planes shooting missiles at us. And in front of us, were UN tanks also shooting at us.

I could tell this was serious. I mean, they weren't trying to get me. They were trying to kill me! The plane was spiraling everywhere, making wheelies, somersaults, twisters, roller coasters…everything!

"Prepare for emergency landing!" Larry yelled.

"Land?! Where are we going to land?!" I yelled back. That's when I saw what was before us. A lake. We were headed towards it. And there was nothing stopping us.


	14. Chapter 14

One minute we were in the air. But the next, we crashed into the water and slowed wayyyy down. "I didn't know this plane could go underwater," I said to Larry.

"It can't," he said.

HUH?! "What did you say?!"

"Just get out. Anywhere."

We both walked back to the emergency door. I pulled the latch and it opened, filling the entire space inside with water. We both held our breaths and swam out of the sinking airplane. We reached the surface just in time.

We looked around us for a while. "Now what?"

"Well, I don't think they saw us. That's good."

We swam to shore. We stood up and saw where we were. A thick forest surrounded us. The mighty Amarkian mountains rose above the tree line in the background. Larry started walking east, towards the highway. I followed him.

"Now, here's what I figure," said Larry, "now they know that you've escaped from the prison. But they saw us crash. And so they don't know that you're alive. We have to keep it that way."

I looked at him. "Why should we let then keep thinking that I'm dead?"

"For several reasons! For one, that way we'll make sure they aren't trying to kill you! And second, they're going to be busy trying to get away with all of our stuff. And finally, you owe it to me."

"What? What do I owe you?"

"About a zillion favors and counting."

I crossed my arms and stared at him. "Have you been keeping track of all the favors I've asked you?"

"Doesn't everybody?"

I rolled my eyes and sighed. "All right, all right. So I have to hide, right?"

"Right! I know the perfect place. Follow me." We crept through the thick trees for about an hour or so. I had no idea in what direction we were walking or where we were headed. We came to a clearing, next to the highway. The road itself was deserted, but we could hear sirens in the distance and plumes of smoke from all directions.

Larry led me over to a spot near the road where the sewer was. He grabbed the heavy metal lid off as if it were cotton. He pointed down in…well, in there. "Oh, no!" I said. "OH, no! No, no, no!"

"You have no choice. They have to keep thinking that you're dead. And this is the best place to hide."

"I am NOT hiding in the sewers!" I said.

He crossed his arms and looked at me.

I heard gunshots in the distance and shouting and yelling. Then I turned to Larry. "Last one in is a rotten fossil!" I dived in almost athletically. My feet landed with a thud on the concrete tubing inside.

Yech!

I had never smelled anything so disgusting in my entire life! I had to fight back vomit. Well, at least Larry would be here to support me. I looked around and…HUH?! Did I just hear somebody shutting the door from outside?! Why the…the little rat had left me inside all by myself! I was all by myself in a sewer!

You might think it couldn't get worse, right?

Bite your tongue.

(Eight Miles Northwest of Chandra.)

The noise of heavy artillery roared through the suburbs of the desert communities. Citizens watched in fear as UN tanks rolled down their streets. Nobody dared to leave their homes, even to water their plants or take out the trash bins.

The tanks made their way to a spot just northwest of the city limits, in the sandy and rocky desert terrain. Their destination was supposed to be top-secret. But Amarkians had an innate instinct for knowing when something bad was happening. The secret had leaked out.

As the tanks arrived at their heavily guarded oil rig, there were about sixty or seventy people protesting and shouting. They held up signs that spoke against all oil drilling and asked the UN to leave. The tanks rolled in anyways and the guards blocked the entrance.

The air suddenly filled with the almost unbearable noise of heavy drilling. "Hey!" said one of the leaders of the protest. He was a Camptosaurus. "What do you think you're doing?!"

One of the UN officials yelled at him from across the gate. "What does it look like? We're drilling for oil!"

"You can't do that! You have no right!"

He held up his huge gun at him and clicked it. "Shut up, you brute! We have every right to drill this oil, and I have every right to send my tanks and crush all you people dead!"

The people didn't stop being shocked at the brutality in their threats. "You'll ruin the environment, just like you have everywhere else!"

"I don't care!" said the soldier. "All I care is about getting the dough into my bank account. And we will drill until we've used up the last drop of oil in this useless land of yours."

The protest leader gaped in awe. He couldn't believe how stubborn and brutal the UN really was. He began to incite the protesters to yell louder and louder. The oil drillers ignored them, and continued their dirty work. Literally, dirty.

"We struck oil!" one of the workers yelled. They erupted into cheers and applauses. The director yelled at them, "Get it, get it all! I want so much oil that it turns the rivers and lakes black!"

The crowds yelled and booed.

Finally, something happened.

One lone, brave soul dared to run toward the gates. The sound of a gun firing filled the air. The young man fell backward on the ground and collapsed. The protesting became violent and the citizens became angry beasts.

Several UN tanks rolled out of the gates, one of them crushing the body of the young man. Soldiers, their blue UN helmets flashing, began firing their guns onto the crowd. They even shot women and children as they tried to escape. Some were intentionally run over by tanks. The terrible massacre continued as the protesting turned into pleads for mercy.

They were ignored, as UN soldiers arrested dozens and shot many dead, right there in broad daylight in front of everyone. The tanks that weren't busy crushing innocent victims rolled further down the street, aiming to fire down upon the suburbs.

Five hundred yards before they could cross the city limits, another young man with a broken nose and several scars jumped in front of the tanks. The tank tried to go around him, but he jumped in front of it again.

Again, the tank veered to the left to move around him, but the young man jumped in front of the tank. The soldier manning the tank stuck his head out from the top. "Get out of the way!"

"Never!"

"I'm going to run over you if you don't!"

"Fine, then! I don't care!"

"You'll be sorry!"

"Yes, you will!"

The soldier went back inside the tank and revved the engine loudly. Black smoke vented from the back. He accelerated at full speed, crushing the defiant and began firing down on the homes and schools, as soldiers on foot shot people trying to seek refuge.

(OVAL OFFICE, WASHINGTON D.C.)

The President and his Advisors stared at the horrendous images on the screen. There were fires, tanks, people screaming, and obvious bloodshed. "What's going on in that country?!" the President exclaimed.

A senior military general, in his dark gray uniform almost completely covered with badges, said, "Just carrying out the plan, sir. Nobody said enforcing democracy and justice would be easy."

The President turned to him furiously, "Fool! This is not what we planned for. This…was…not…on the menu!" He stood up from his desk and glared at him. "Who is responsible? Who planned all this?"

The general looked doubtful. "I do know that those soldiers are only carrying out commands from the higher levels." He started for the door. "I'll be back, sir." He didn't stop, even when the President demanded to know his reasons. He closed the door behind him and sneaked into the bathroom. He stood in front of the mirror, smiling evilly. He zipped out of his human-general disguise.

His black body and red eyes glowed ominously in his reflection. He imagined that he was staring at a TV camera. "We're back!"


	15. Chapter 15

BACK IN THE…UH, SEWERS.)

Blech! I could die of asphyxiation. I had never smelled anything so disgusting, obnoxious, or repulsive in my entire life! And the sounds…ugh! Never mind. Anyways, I'd been there for about a half an hour, when I decided that I should walk a little through the pipe system.

Of course, I tried to stay as dry as possible. Which wasn't exactly as easy as diving into a sandbox from a seesaw. But that was going to be the least of my worries.

I hadn't gone 100 feet when I heard a loud THUMP! It'd been so long since I'd heard a loud noise that I actually jumped and BONK! Hit my head on the top of the stupid pipe. It hurt like crazy. I mean, we're talking about cement that's reinforced with steel.

Anyways, I looked around me. Nothing. Huh. Maybe I'd imagined it. Or maybe something hard was sloshing around somewhere. Or maybe a heavy vehicle was driving overhead. THUMP! THUMP! THUMP!

HUH? Just a minute! That was an impact tremor. Somebody or something was walking around in there. I laughed at myself. Ah! That's silly. Who would be stubborn, stupid, and evil enough to be wandering around and stalking me in a sewer system? Ha, only a Red Eye would…

Wait! A Red Eye? No, it couldn't be!

Wait, was that a shadow? I turned around and started running as fast as I could away from the…OOF! Bumped smack into…black, bony skin. Gigantic claws and talons. Red Eyes. Gulp! My heart pounded so crazy it went into rhythm with his breathing. He sneered at me. More like leered.

"Uh…um…uh…hi," I said weakly.

"HHiiiii!" he growled. "Surprised you didn't find out who was really behind the whole thing."

I felt my heart pounding in my throat. "You?! You are causing this whole thing?!"

He laughed. "It was so exhausting; I had drunk about 5 gallons of blood every hour to stay awake." I gulped, trying not to vomit.

I started backing away slowly, "Well, too bad for you. Well, I gotta be going. See ya!" I turned around and ran as fast as I had ever run in my entire existence. I gave it all I could. I pumped my arms and legs as fast as I could. I didn't hear him behind me. Maybe I'd left him…OOF!

Then again, maybe not.

He snarled, showing his…GULP…bone-crunching teeth. Worse than a T. rex's. He backed me into a corner. Literally. "You…you don't have to do this!" I said to him.

"No, but I want to!" he said.

He opened his huge jaws, put them around me and…swallowed me whole. Surprisingly, I didn't die. He didn't tear me into pieces with those huge teeth of his. Just went down the guzzle, as they say.

Know you'll be able to learn about the internal, uh, anatomy of these things. The stomach was…hard. When I fell into his stomach, it felt like I'd fallen from a multi-story building headfirst on the street.

Well, I really wouldn't know, because I'd never really done it. But just to give you an idea, you know?

Not long after I'd arrived at the stomach, huge thorns popped out of the walls and started coming towards me. I crouched away from them, but got backed into a corner. I did the only reasonable thing I could. "LARRY!"

Which might not have been the smartest thing to do, considering what happened next. Not only would Larry would not hear me, but…just as I was screaming with my mouth fully open, the idiot Red Eye decided to drink beer. And of course it got in me too.

I started hiccupping. And that wasn't the worst part either. He also decided to smoke snuff. And of course I got the brunt of it. And naturally, I started giggling. You should've seen me. Hiccupping, giggling, and screaming for help. I may have been giggling and silly-sounding, but I seriously knew that unless something happened soon, Amarkia and I would be doomed to extinction.

Ironic, isn't it?

(IN THE PALACE.)

Larry was still hiding underneath the living room carpet, with UN soldiers filling the entire room. One of them suddenly shouted. "Hey! Look what I found!"

I hope it's not one of the power potions. "It's…it's gold! Tons of it! And diamonds and rubies and jewels and emeralds!"

Another soldier said, "It must be at least hundreds of tons!"

One of the commanders said, "Take it! Take it all! There must be more from where it came from! Get it all!"

That's it! This is unforgivable. We've been quiet too long, Larry said to himself. Time to declare war. He sneaked out of the Palace and ran outside, climbing the closest tree available. He grabbed his phone and dialed Spiny's number.

(IN THE RED EYE'S STOMACH.)

I heard a ringing. I barely had enough space to move around in that cramped area. The stomach seemed to be compressing me. Or maybe I was imagining it. I really was hoping for the latter.

I slid my hand into my pocket and tried to pull the phone out. I wasn't successful, so I tried to slide my hand against the screen…only I couldn't tell which side was the screen, so I had to guess.

After I slid my finger, the ringing didn't stop, which meant that I had the wrong side. It took me about five minutes to get my finger out of there onto the right side. "Keep ringing!" I said. Don't know why, but I did.

The ringing stopped, and I hoped that I had answered the call. "Hello?!"

Larry's voice yelled, "Spiny, I know you can't be bothered with bad news but…they found our Treasure Room!"

"WHAT?!"

"They're taking everything…they….we're declaring war."

"How can I declare war if I'm um, incapacitated?"

"Incapacitated? What are you talking about?!"

"I um…I got swallowed by a Red Eye that was stalking me in the sewer." He didn't answer. "Larry? Hello? Did you hear me? I got swallowed by a Red Eye."

"Huh…that's an uncomfortable situation. Hold on." In the blink of an eye, literally, he appeared right there before me. "What? Huh?"

"Teleportation. Now here," he handed me a paper. He handed me a pen. I couldn't believe it. Here I was in some weird monster's stomach, signing a piece of paper! I must've been crazy!

"All right," said Larry. "This gives me special privileges in your home."

"Wait? What?!"

He smiled. "Just a formality. Here's the war declaration."

I rolled my eyes and signed it. Well, since I was dead anyways, there was no point in moping about it. "Great! Now get me outta here."

"Sorry, gotta run." And just like that, he teleported out of there. Fool. Well, as I sat there getting compressed, I was having all those just-before-death thoughts. Boy did I experience the Stages of Death.

(AMARKIAN MILITARY STATION.)

Robert adjusted his uniform. He'd never touched it before. He was a mess. His heart was palpitating, his mouth was dry, his knees were shaking, and he felt like throwing up. He was about to address and command about five thousand soldiers. An army. His army. For the moment anyway.

He stepped into the room. All of the men stood up and saluted him. They were all at least twice as old as he was, but he was their commander now. "All right," he said as loud as possible, trying not to sound like a 12-year-old.

"I know that not all of you have fighting experience. How many of you haven't fought in a real battle?"

Every single uniformed person raised his hand. "That's amusing," Robert muttered. "Anyways, um…well, we know what we have to do. We have officially declared war against the UN. We're at moment a nation without borders. The world is our border now."

The sweat started pouring down from his head. Boy, did he feel like fainting. "Okay, first order of business. We have to order citizens to retreat to the Urban System of Bunkers. We'll make sure everyone gets down there safely and securely. Next, we have to protect our power plants, our farms, crop fields, and algae fuel facilities."

One of the men stood up. "Sir, what about the cancer cure?"

Darn! He had completely forgotten about that. "Oh no! Well, um…half of you go evacuate everyone. And the rest of us are going to hide and secure the cancer cure! That's priority! Before we fire a single bullet, we have to hide it all."

He sipped—well, more like gulped—the glass of water nearby. "All right, let's go!" Everyone stood up, and grabbed their protective gear, shields, swords, and firearms. They poured out of the building.

Heavy Amarkian Army vehicles thundered down the streets.

(UN HEADQUARTERS, NEW YORK, NY)

Nobody had lunch or breakfast or dinner. No one had even gotten up to go to the restroom. Everyone's eyes were glued to the huge plasma screen TV. "…have been shot dead by UN soldiers as they drilled for oil in a field just outside of the town. History seemed to be repeating itself when a young man stood in front of a row of UN tank and refused to move. However, unlike what happened in China in 1989, the UN tanks, as you can see in this video, did in deed, run over him."

The officials kept staring at each other and muttering about the atrocities they'd seen.

"Just a minute!" said the reporter. "Is that confirmed? Yes, we have now confirmation that the Government of Amarkia has declared official war against the United Nations Organization. Amarkia is officially at war. Amarkian army tanks and trucks are now going down the streets and evacuating civilians to citywide bunkers. We also have confirmed reports that the Army is now under command of Prince Robert Kyverná, in the light of the fact that King Spiny are still presumed to be dead."


	16. Chapter 16

(SAUROPOLIS REGIONAL HOSPITAL)

"Hurry! Hurry!" Robert yelled. Sunset was only about an hour away. They had to act fast to hide the cancer medicine. He had barely doing this for three minutes when he heard the sound that send his heart up into his throat.

POW-POW-POW! He turned to a soldier helping him. "Is that the sound of shooting?!"

He nodded. "I think so, sir."

Robert stood frozen for a while. Then they both heard a horrible CRASH! Another soldier ran into the room. He was covered in dust, plaster, and had cuts all over his face. He was almost completely out of breath. "Sir….sir…the UN…they're firing at us….from the first floor!"

"They're shooting at us? What about that crashing sound?"

"….UN tanks….crashed through…the front…entrance….UN…choppers….also have….landed…on the roof…"

For a while, Robert lost his footing and fell on the floor. He shook his head. "I can't believe it. They're not even giving us a chance to…" he looked up. "What do you suggest?"

"Sir, we can use the heavy anti-tank hand artillery to destroy tanks from here in the upper stories."

Robert nodded. "Do that, then."

"Yes, sir!"

After he left, he said to the other soldier, "Guess we should get all this out back."

He nodded. "Yes, sir." His phone beeped. He grabbed it out. "Sir! It's from Larry. He says he's found Spiny."

Robert felt such a feeling of relief that he got very dizzy. He looked up towards the ceiling. "Thank you, thank you."

(SEWER PIPES)

Ugh. The last few minutes had been the worst in my life. From the stomach, I'd been squeezed into the small intestine, which was like a liquidator without blades. And the large intestine had nearly crushed me to death, because the walls slammed in on me. Then after that…well, let's just say that I managed to leave the Red Eye's body, but not the way I'd gotten in.

That's all I'll say. No details. Anyway, there I was, agonizing from that horrible and traumatic experience, when I stood up and… "Larry?!"

"No, it's Thomas Edison. Of course it's me, you idiot!"

I was so happy to see him (surprise) that I didn't care that he was calling me an idiot or being sarcastic with me. "Larry! I'm so glad to see you!"

"You're going crazy!" Larry said.

"I know, I know! But I'd rather see you more than anyone. Well, maybe except Lilia."

He crossed his arms. "Yeah, that figures. I knew this was too good to be true." He looked me all over. "What happened to you?"

I sighed. "Don't ask. Let's just say that I explored the entire digestive system personally. And by entirely I do mean entirely."

He shivered. "Well, that really is uncomfortable. Well, come on, you need to get washed up. You have to get into your military clothes."

I nodded. "Yeah."

We both ran briskly out of there, hoping to get to where we were needed before it was too late.

(65,000 feet above ground level)

The late afternoon blue sky suddenly became dark gray with thousands of military aircraft swarming like flocks of migrating birds. Less than two minutes after the official war declaration, every single unit of every single department of the Amarkian Royal Armed Forces had been mobilized. Amarkian tanks and military trucks were now thundering down every street. All the rivers, lakes and Pliosaur Bay were now filled with Coast Guard and Navy forces.

"Listen up, men," said the Air Force Commanding General. "We have only a limited amount of ammo and time to do this job. And also remember: we are big, but we're also a big target. If we get hit, we can shed our layers three times. This means that we drop the outer layer and we become lighter and more agile. The downside is that we have less weaponry and shield."

"We have our target, sir," the pilot yelled. In front of them, thousands of UN tanks were rolling through the countryside, killing citizens and livestock and burning every single building and crop field to the ground. "Fire!" the general ordered.

The sound of engines gave away to a terrible firing sound and the whistling and booming of shells and missiles. The plane rocked terribly like a ship in the eye of a hurricane. Then, suddenly, the crewmen heard a deafening CRASH!

"Sir, we've been hit. We've been hit! On our left rear flank! Damage is 42%. We're losing altitude."

"Launch the parachute! Gentlemen, prepare for the worst." The falling aircraft crashed into a fleet of UN tanks, causing a massive fireball, engulfing many UN units.

(AT A SMALL AMARKIAN RURAL COMMUNITY)

The air-raid sirens had been sounding for hours now. The skies suddenly filled with enemy aircraft that were firing directly on houses and civilian centers. Screaming, and running citizens ran towards the city bunkers, which interconnected along with thousands of others across the country.

Like a merciless master that beats it slave, the UN aircraft began to fire sadistically upon the helpless Amarkian men, women, and children, both dinosaur and human. In the space of forty-seconds, more than 6,000 Amarkians were dead, 94% of the town's population. As soon as they were through, the UN air attackers moved on to the next town to continue the very-well planned and organized massacre.

(SKY VALLEY CAVES)

Not even the fading light of dusk could stop the merciless and brutal appetite for more for the UN troops. As the sky darkened, they moved into the crystal-illuminated caves on the side of the mountains. "All right, all their gold's got to be here somewhere. Look for it and when you do, get it all! All that gold will help us stay in Iraq."

The ant army of UN soldiers began overturning every single rock and boulder. "Sir, come and see this." The commander quickly hurried over and saw what the soldier was seeing: a strange, slightly viscous turquoise-colored liquid seeping from a crack in the walls of the cave.

The commander cupped both his hands under the small torrent and drank the liquid. "Hmm…this tastes good. Find me some more! Quick!"

The young soldier hesitated. "Sir, it may be toxic. We may want to send it to the lab first."

No one had time to be surprised when the commander took his pistol and fired at the soldier in the head, killing him instantly. Then, with blood-shot eyes, he turned to the others. "FIND ME MORE OF THIS! NOW!"

Before he'd finished talking, they all scurried to find more. "Here's a bottle, sir. It has a label that says…Telekinesis?"

"Take everything you can find! Everything! And bring in all the night gear. We're going to stay here for the night."

"Sir, if we stay here, we'll become an easy target for their air forces. They might cause a cave-in and seal us in here."

The commander pointed his pistol at him. "You have one second to go do as you're told!"

"Yes, sir!" He quickly ran out of his superior's firing range.

(AMARKIAN MILITARY BASE)

"Prince Robert! Prince Robert!" the field commander was completely out of breath.

"What is it? What happened?"

"They…they've taken over the mountainous regions!"

"That's going to be quite bloody," said Robert's military assistant. "We won't have time to retreat our personnel from there or to attack form the ground. And if we attack from the air, we'll also destroy our own riches."

Robert stood up and started pacing quickly. Come on Robbie boy, think. Think, think. What would Spiny do? He looked at the field commander. "Use a combination of small aerial attacks and ambushes. Try to make yourself invisible."

(BACK AT THE MOUNTAINS.)

Now in the full darkness of night, the UN was switching to Nocturnal Mode. They had successfully installed a base at the entrance of the caves and had were in the process of packaging the strange liquids they'd found into trucks.

"And so, now that we control the mountains, the rest should be a breeze," said the Air Marshal, opening a bottle of champagne.

"Yes," said the Field Commander. "We'll create avalanches that will destroy their worthless souls." He filled his glass and said, "A toast," he said lifting his cup, "to the end of Amarkia, the extinction of this worthless race, and the death of Amarkian way of life….FOREVER!"

"I'll drink to that."

What they didn't know was…that it was not over.


	17. Chapter 17

"Sir, we're losing time!" said the UN soldier to his superior. They'd spend hours digging up all the precious metals and gold from the mountain peaks. They were high enough so that they were out of any avalanche danger.

"All right, just take that last blue diamond and let's go."

The moment he removed the blue diamond from its place under the slab of ice, a loud hissing sound emanated and steam started to come out of fissures that hadn't been there before. The soldier smelled the air. "Does anybody smell sulfur?"

"Yes, let's get out of here!" They all raced to the helicopter, its blades whirring and lifting into the air.

The snow and ice started melting at a phenomenal rate on the peak as the temperature soared.

"Well, that was a little intense," said one of the other soldiers.

"Yeah, but look at all the loot we have! And they thought they could hide it from us!"

"They're so stupid. We got away without a single scratch!"

Their laughter was interrupted by a loud BOOM! Behind them, the peak of the mountain from which they had been scavenging suddenly ripped to shreds. An eerie, all-too familiar orange-red glow burst and dark, roiling clouds rocketed into the sky, throwing massive chunks of rock everywhere.

"Go faster! Go faster! Go faster!" said the commander.

"I'm going as fast as the engine will let me!" the pilot yelled.

Without warning, another explosion occurred, followed by a whistling sound. The next few seconds were turmoil as the lava bomb struck the chopper, crashing it into the ground and incinerating everything and everyone on board.

(AMARKIAN MUSEUM OF RARE ARTS, NORTHERN SAUROPOLIS)

It had only taken the UN about an hour to empty the entire museum of its most valuable exhibits, some of which were the most expensive in the world. Gem cups were at the top of the list. "All right, do we have everything?" said the commander of his unit.

"Yes, sir," the sergeant replied.

"All right, let's go."

Outside the front doors on the steps leading up to them, they meet with Larry and a thousand heavily-armed Amarkian troops. "Hold it right there!" Larry yelled. "That's good, now, put that back where you found it, or I'll order my troops to fire."

The commander laughed. "Get real, Saurie. We're superior in intelligence and wit. You don't have a chance. Why don't you do yourself a favor and just turn yourself in? Or do you want more dead men, more burned cities, more kidnapped kids, and more 14-year-old chicks that will be giving birth nine months from now?"

His sadist words chilled Larry right down to his bone marrow. He could hardly control himself at their continued threats. This guy's talking as if it was the best thing in the world!

"Yeah, just give up," the sergeant said. "Who's got the gem cup now, huh?" he said, holding it up. Not one second after he'd finished, Quetzalcoatlus came speeding down from above and snatched away the gem cup and disappeared into the dark night sky.

"Hey!" The sergeant looked furiously at Larry and his men. "FIRE!" The tension erupted into loud shooting and yelling. In the Battle of the Museum both sides fought furiously for hours, without either gaining an inch.

(MEANWHILE, ON THE OTHER SIDE OF SAUROPOLIS)

Robert slowly crept forward with his army of men behind him. An eerie and tense silence hung in the air. Only the sound of distant crickets protruded in the full moon night. The air was heavy and still, like before a tornado.

Robert flinched at every step that he took. He was a wreck. His hair was a mess, long blonde flocks constantly getting in his face. He was shaking horribly and sweating torrents. They had placed ambushes all over the deserted city. Surely, the UN had done the same thing.

He suddenly heard a sound to his right. He swung his weapon at the source of the noise. "Sir," said one the guards whispering. "Don't shoot."

"Didn't you hear that?"

"Um, sir…that was a toilet flushing."

"What?" What idiot uses the bathroom at a time like this? Huh. Not a bad idea. No, Robert, no! Concentrate! Focus!

He resumed his silent march. Then, behind the sound of water being drunk emanated. "Enough!" Robert yelled then immediately shushed himself. Nice going, Robert. That was SO inconspicuous.

No one had time to be surprised when the sound of heavy gunfire began and the dark figures appeared out of their ambush. Robert pointed his gun forward along with his men. He suddenly felt the sting and burn of a million angry hornets on his left shoulder. Fire from the gunshot started to spread and made him collapse.

The UN troops charged forward to kill, but were grounded by Amarkian soldiers behind them. "Drop your guns! All of you!" a heavy voice yelled. "You are all under arrest for looting and attempted murder! Sergeant! Take these infesters to the military tribunal!"

"Yes, sir!"

The soldiers helped Robert up. "Are you all right, sir?"

"It hurts so bad!" Robert had been a man all day. He suddenly turned twelve again as he felt the stinging tears roll down his cheek.

"Hmm. Better take him to the Medical HQ. The rest of you will help me take these criminals away and clean up their mess."

"Yes, sir."

(BACK WITH SPINY)

I had never walked so much in my whole life. We hadn't stopped in six whole hours. I didn't even know where the heck we were! I was so tired; I was starting to think we weren't in Amarkia.

I got a little ahead of Larry and sat on a boulder on the trail. "Time out, Larry."

"What for? We're not playing basketball."

"No! I mean that I want to rest for a while. My feet are so swollen; I think I'm going to need a size 12 now! Plus, my foot's burning. I feel like I've been walking on lava the whole time."

Larry looked around in all directions then at the moon, which was our only light source. "Okay. We'll take a break."

"Where are we anyway?"

"Spiny! You can't worry about trivial things now!"

"Trivial?! Is it trivial to want to know where you are in the middle of the night when your country is being invaded and plundered and everyone else thinks you're dead?"

"Hmm. Now that you mention it that is a good argument."

"It's an excellent argument."

"Well, guess what? I'll ignore it. We can't be bothered my trivial matters."

Ugh! I was better off inside the Red Eye's stomach. I was in the process of massaging my toes when Larry's cellphone rang. "Yes, hello? Speaking. What?! You're not serious! Oh, no! Okay. I don't know yet! I'll think of something! Ok, take care. Bye."

"What happened?"

"Now, things have really gotten bad."

"What?! What is it?"

"Well…when the UN started to move into the mountains, we started to secretly move in some convoys. You know, just trucks and other vehicles to move as much of the power potions as possible. Unfortunately, they caught one of them and they shot and killed the driver."

"Oh, no!"

"Oh, yes. They just threw his body aside, and drove the truck back to get more power potions."

"What powers were in that truck? Do you know?"

He shrugged. "I have no idea. I just hope it's not Telekinesis, Antimatter, or Atomic Manipulation."

(HIJACKED POWER POTION CONVOY)

Halfway between Sky City and Thermala

10:56 p.m.

"Hurry it up! There's still room for more!" the Unit Captain yelled.

The truck was now almost over its carrying capacity. "Sir, we're trying our best!" the sergeant responded.

"Well, it's not enough!"

A voice in the caves yelled, "Retreat, retreat!" The lieutenant nearly collapsed from exhaustion when he reached his superiors. "Sir…we have to leave…right now!"

"What's going on?!"

"The Amarkians! They've found us! And they're fully armed. We have to leave now."

"Sergeant!"

"Yes, sir," the man said, quickly standing erect.

"Get your men ready. Tell them to load up."

"Sir," the lieutenant. "We don't have time to fight back. They're coming to fast. They've got ambushes everywhere now!"

"Ridiculous. Never let it be heard that Amarkia made US run away." The sounds of gunfire and heavy artillery and screaming UN troops reverberated across the cave entrance. The captain turned to the two men. "Don't tell anyone we ran away. Now let's get out of here!"

The three men jumped into the loaded truck and roared down the road. The exhausted Amarkian men behind them stopped, panting just in time to see them speed away. "Great. They got away. And with all those powers. Now what?"

His partner said. "Hmm. I know!" He grabbed a small, fruit-sized object from his pocket. He bit the ring off and threw the grenade as hard as he could.

The truck blew into a thousand pieces. "No, you idiot! What'd you do that for?"

"Are you calling me an idiot? I just saved us from a horrible disaster, in case you haven't noticed."

"Do you know what happens to power potions when they encounter any kind of explosive?!"

"No, what?"

Both men were thrown to the ground by a larger explosion. The back of the fiery truck suddenly became an erratic and brilliant white flash, like plasma. Then, the light suddenly imploded and left nothing but a dark green/black gaseous substance.

"That's what happens."


	18. Chapter 18

"You mean to tell me that 500 UN soldiers were exposed to super-powers in gaseous form?" I asked dumbfounded.

Larry nodded. "Exactly."

"And now they all have powers?"

"Yes."

"And now they're defeating us?"

"Yep. Some have the ability to fire weapons using only their minds. Others have the Force Field Power. One has lightning and is now killing lots of ours. And the list goes on and on. It's not too unlikely that some have Telekinesis."

I sat down and lay back against the tree we'd come by. I still had no idea where in Amarkia we were, but with this piece of information, I didn't want to be bothered by trivial things. Yeah, yeah, I know. I got mad at Larry earlier for that, but well….

I sighed. I was feeling worn-down. I had gone so much in the past four hours. Now try to comprehend all that happened to me in the past two and a half weeks. I was really beaten down, physically, psychologically, mentally and emotionally.

My mind drew a blank every time I tried to think of something. Simply put, my mind was so worn out from all the mistreat, abuse, neglect, mock, frame, and near-death experiences that I just simply could not think properly. Let me tell you, it's extremely frustrating.

I unconsciously hit myself on the head with a rock that I had in my hand. Yes, it hurt like crazy, but that made something click. No, not my skull for you smart-alecks. I slowly stood up. "Larry."

"Yeah?"

"How do you fight fire?"

"With a hose?"

I glared at him. "What?"

He started using his fingers to play with my face. "With a bucket of water? With ice? Um…with a fire engine! No? Uh…With a fireproof blanket? I give up."

That's usually my cue to pinch him on his upper arm. Which I do. And I did pinch him right then and there. "No, you fool! You fight fire with fire!"

"You do?"

"Sure. Over in Australia, when they have wildfires that start to get out of control, they create smaller, controlled fires to burn up the fuel before the main fire gets there. That way, when the main fire does get there, it can't burn anything else, it burns itself out."

"I always wondered where that saying came from. So are you saying we should switch from our highly-modern, incredibly-super-ultra-advanced conventional weapons to powers?"

"Well, our HMISUAC weapons are getting us anywhere."

"Our what?!"

"Our…what you just said. I just made up an acronym for all those words."

"Well, for your information, Mr. Webber Dictionary, this is no time for grammar class. Besides, I flunked that again."

"Oh, yeah, Smarty-Pants? Well, for your information, I…what are we talking about?"

"I don't know."

"See what you did? You've got me so mixed up I can't remember what I was about to say."

"Well, that's your problem."

Then, my mind clicked. "No, wait. Now I remember. I was saying that it's time we started using our deadliest weapons."

Larry's eyes widened. "Oh, yeah!" He got on the phone. "Hello. Yes, me. Bring me the Magnetic Field Gloves. And the Laser Cannons. And the Plasma Bombs. And all non-missile, non-nuclear WMD's." Just in case you're wondering, WMD stands for Weapons of Mass Destruction.

"Plasma cannons? Magnetic gloves? What the heck is that?" I asked. I'd personally never heard of it.

He ignored me. "Activate Code Intoxication." Then he hung up. "You'll have that next time on your Royal Classes. Now, we have to go to the front lines ourselves."

"How? We don't even have transportation."

Larry whistled. Out of nowhere, the TIV came flying down from the sky and landed on the road right in front of us. He ran over and jumped in through the passenger window. Then he looked at me. "Aren't you coming?"

I ran over and stepped into the driver's seat. The engine started and I followed Larry's directions. "So, where we going? To recover the potions or what?"

"No. We're going to the UN base five minutes from where."

HOLD IT! I slammed the brakes, making them squeal loudly. Larry obviously forgot to put on his seat belt, and obviously he went flying forward and smashed into the windshield. And of course, again, obviously, he unstuck form the glass and fell on the floor.

"What'd you do that for?"

"We're going to a UN base? Are you crazy? What's the matter with you?"

"Ugh. Yes, no, and nothing's the matter with me. The real question is what's the matter with you?"

"You do realize that if we go there, we'll be walking into a death trap."

He rolled his eyes and looked at me. "Will you just trust me on this?"

I glared at him. "Trusting you is what nearly got me in a helicopter crash. And it's what got me captured by those UN brutes. Trusting you is what made me get into a freaking sewer! And what made me get swallowed alive by a Red Eye! Can you see the point I'm trying to make here?!"

"No," he answered quickly. "Now drive forward."

Sigh. I was too tired to argue with this guy. I wasn't going to get down to his level just to…oh, forget it!

Anyways, by this time it was…yikes! It was 12:05 am! But with all the suspense and adrenaline, I felt like I'd drunk a cup of coffee the size of a dinner table. Just ask Bugs Bunny.

Pretty soon, we were joined by Amarkian tanks and military trucks. We turned where the paved road turned right and became a dirty/gravel road. Let me tell you, if you wanted a bumpy ride, you could've gone on that road instead of Six Flags.

As we reached our target, we slowed down steadily until we were about three hundred yards or so away. Now that may sound like too far, but just keep reading and find out.

We all stopped our engines. Larry than gave the command to fire with conventional cannon fire. This loud, close-up to noise was starting to affect my ears. I mean, they were ringing like a home phone gone berserk.

My heart stopped beating when I saw the UN base open its doors. A river of UN tanks poured out and were racing towards us at breakneck speed, firing and shooting and everything.

I started to panic. Even TIV that was originally designed to be in winds of over 250 miles per hour with trees and houses flying at 200 miles per hour probably wouldn't survive being run over by an army of tanks.

"Ready the laser cannons," Larry said into the TIV's walkie-talkie.

Huh. I, uh…I'd sort of forgotten we'd brought those along.

Hee hee.

Anyways, there we were, in pure darkness, with only the full moon and the stars as our lights. On a one-way not-so-wide unpaved road, and dozens of UN tanks blazing towards us. The horrible, all-too-familiar sound of cannons blasted began.

Larry pulled a few switches and started pushing buttons. "Here we go. Time to play a little."

The next few seconds were a blur, so listen closely. Or actually, read closely. A large red, dot appeared on a tank not more than 500 feet in front of us. It was still at first. The laser, not the tank. The tank was moving…

Never mind, you know what I mean.

Anyways, the laser started moving in circles rapidly. It started going faster and faster until it seemed like a red ring. Then, Larry said in a robotic voice, "Target Acquired."

Well, that Laser Cannon was stronger than I thought. First, there was a loud sound. Like the sound of something huge powering up. Then, a bright light shone. And then, the tank incinerated into thin air, not leaving even ashes behind.

Pretty soon, the tables were turning. Once, we all started firing that front row of tanks into thin air, you could hear cries of desperation and confusion amongst the UN guys…or idiots, I should call them. Because that's what they were.

Anyways, once all the flank lines started retreating, finishing the job was a breeze. We blew up that UN base in no time.

The UN soldiers who survived had either run away or been captured. Know, unlike them, I wasn't going just kill whomever I captured. They were all sent to special prisons. Once this was all over, I planned to organize a special trial in the Amarkian High Court of Justice in order to give those ruffians a fair trial and just punishment.

I, even under these circumstances, was capable of being impartial and unbiased.


	19. Chapter 19

(FAMILY WOODS RESIDENCE)

July 10

12:28 a.m.

The warm milk heating on the stove seemed to be the only normal thing around for Valerie Woods. Her eyes were swollen, red and puffy, just like her daughter, Lilia. Only, her eyes were because of lack of sleep and stress, not grief and crying.

When they'd received word that Spiny had died in the airplane accident while being chased by the UN forces, Lilia cried so hard that she'd fainted and lost consciousness for eight hours. The doctor said she'd suffered a paroxysm of grief and should remain in her room.

When she entered Lilia's room, she saw the heartbreaking sight of her friends Darla, Meagan, and Amanda trying to console her. She knew that the news that her best friend Kathy's kidnapping and Patty's disappearance made her feel even worse.

Lilia's mother set the warm milk and bread on Lilia's lap. "Here you go, sweetie."

Lilia wiped the ever coming torrents from her eyes. "I'm not hungry, Mom."

"Lilia, you have to eat. You can't go on like this."

"I said I wasn't hungry!" She quickly turned around, both angry and ashamed at herself for yelling at her mom. She'd never done that in her life. She buried her face in the pillow and resumed sobbing.

"It's okay, Mrs. Woods," said Darla.

"Yeah, we'll make sure she eats," said Amanda.

She sighed. "Well, thank you, girls. I really appreciate you coming here, with all the risks there are now."

"She's a sister to us. We wouldn't have it any other way," Meagan replied.

She nodded and left the room.

"Lilia, you've got to eat something, even if it's my skateboard," said Darla.

Lilia didn't even turn to look at her. "I don't want to."

"Lilia, if you don't eat, you're going to die. Do you want that?" Meagan asked.

"I don't care! I don't care if I live or die. I don't want to live! My life's not anything without him! He was the world to me! He made me perfect! We belonged to each other! Can't you understand that?"

No one said a word. The only noise were sirens, shooting and screams in the distance.

"You really loved him, didn't you?" said, Darla, trying to hold back her own tears.

Lilia nodded. "How could I not love him? I've loved him since we moved here. Since I was seven. He was so…so perfect."

She looked down at her lap, grasping her hands together. "He'd always say sweet things to me. He called me every day. He defended me. He made me feel safe. He made me feel special and beautiful. Like I really mattered. He was my best friend. We told each other our best secrets, and we always talked over things we didn't agree about so we wouldn't fight. He respected me and my family and was always unselfish and never showed off. He was…he was my angel."

"Wow, that was beautifully said," Meagan replied.

Lilia chuckled. "That's what he told me once."

"Aww. I know. He was a natural romantic, sweet guy," said Amanda.

Lilia sniffled and wrapped her arms around her legs. "You know what he told me once?"

"What?" said Darla.

"He said I was his little princess and his queen."

"Aww! Really?"

She nodded. "Yeah. And he wrote me songs and poems and once, we went on a picnic and fell asleep under a tree. When I woke up, he'd carried me all the way back home. I woke up just in time when he tucked me in bed and kissed me."

"Wow!" said Amanda. "What I wouldn't give to have a boyfriend like that!"

Lilia laid back on her bed. She sighed. "That's what I'm afraid of. That I won't have anyone like him ever again. He was the only one of his kind."

(AMARKIAN NORTHWESTERN GATE)

12:34 a.m.

The flood of UN tanks that had started pouring in for nearly a week hadn't stopped at all. For miles into the horizon, the Amarkian Border Guards could see an unending line of tanks. They were completely powerless to stop them. They just sat there.

The border guard at his post was bored from just watching. He received a notification from Command Center. He ran there and was given a simple instruction. "Just throw these grenades. Don't do anything else."

When he returned to his post, the row of UN tanks was still there, entering the country by force. Well, I don't think this will help, but, here goes. He bit the chain off and threw the grenade.

The gigantic explosion and the massive white light threw him to the ground. The air was filled with a strange, unearthly noise, like a star breathing. When the noise faded, the dumbfounded soldier stood back up and walked over to the top of the wall.

Every single UN tank from the gates to the horizon had been eliminated completely. Not a trace left. He got on the phone quickly. "Hello. Notify all sentries at every gate. Yes. We have a way to get rid of those criminals."

(FIFTY MILES SOUTHEAST OF THERMALA)

12:58 a.m.

"You. Have. Got. To. Be. Kidding. Me." Larry was on the phone again with who-knows-who. I was driving down the empty highway, occasionally going by a deserted town or small city. "All right, we're going there right now."

"What happened now?" I asked.

"Well, you know those UN troops that were exposed to the power gas?"

"Yeah?"

"They're about five miles south of our location and they've reached the frontlines. One of them has the ability to strike anything or anyone with lightning. He's killed a lot of our men and started about a dozen fires."

"What?!"

"Hey, that's not the worst of it. Another guy has the power to produce tornadoes. He's just made a giant EF5 tornado that's heading right for downtown Sauropolis. And another one has the Laser Eyes. He's incinerated half of our trucks."

"Tsk, tsk, tsk. We need to get down there fast and settle this once and for all."

"How? Even with bringing in our power weapons, we're still far behind. And there's still too many UN troops coming in. Unless we figure out where they're coming from, we won't be able to stop them."

I nodded. "I know. We have to find the source and cut off the head."

I made a right where Larry told me to. When I saw lightning ahead of me and instant fires, I knew we'd made the right turn.

I drove at full speed ahead.

Right in front of me, a lightning bolt struck. "YIKES!" I swerved hard to the right. Another lightning bolt appeared. This was the disadvantage of having a vehicle that was 14,000 pounds of steel and metal inside and out. Great for being inside tornadoes, not so great for being hit by lightning.

I HATE lightning.

"Stop here!" Larry yelled when we were right on the front row of the Amarkian troops, not more than 200 feet from the UN brutes.

A giant rock crashed to our right. I guess they also had the ability to make meteorites crash. "Don't you think this is a little too close for comfort?!" I yelled at the top of my lungs, barely able to hear myself think.

"We're fine!" he yelled back.

We both stepped out and…I nearly got smashed by another meteorite. Boy, we needed to get to work fast!

Larry and I both ran towards the UN troops, trying to avoid being the targets of their new weapons. They'd gotten rid of all their guns, cannons and other weapons. Most of them weren't even wearing armor anymore. Fools.

"Stop that right now!" Larry ordered the guy who was shooting lightning bolts.

"Never!" he said, laughing. He was obviously drunk with power. Now you know why I always asked you to not tell anyone about our secrets. He thought he was Zeus. He was short-circuiting and burning everything.

"You may have Telekinesis and Laser Eyes, men! But I have Omnikinesis. You can control animate matter. But I can control anything at all, including matter, energy and inanimate objects!"

Oh, boy, did I know about Omnikinesis. Other names for that power are Absolute Kinesis, Ultimate Telekinesis, and Kinetipotence. This is the most powerful and dangerous super power there is in existence. It is extremely varied and overlaps all other powers. The user must be extremely skilled in the physics of this power in order to use it well without literally destroying the world.

The only power stronger than this one is the All-Power which includes all the….well, I'm sure you can figure that one out. Some names are little bit more scientific than others and we don't always have time to be thinking of names.

Anyways….

You should've been there. That's all I can say. It a sight unlike another. It was a sight that was incredible and only a few got to see. Larry spread his hand out and a large, bright red…well, thing, you could say, came out of his palm and spread forward.

It touched all of the UN soldiers and penetrated into their hearts. It was like…he was sucking some liquid out of them. He was removing the powers from their bodies. The UN troops screamed in pain and some dropped to the ground.

Our guys were speechless. We all just stood there. We couldn't believe what we were seeing.

Before long, every single UN soldier was powerless, and without any means of weapon and defense. I told you they were fools. "Get them!" Larry yelled.

The ones who still had some energy in them ran for their lives. The rest collapsed from exhaustion and trauma. We captured about 698 UN soldiers. Sadly, we'd lost 4,000 Amarkian soldiers in the Battle of the Powers.

"Spiny, we've defeated them in this battle. But they're still coming in by the hundreds. At least it's not in the thousands."

I sat in the driver seat of TIV, door open trying to think of a solution. Then it hit me. "I got it," I said. "I know how we can stop this once and for all and bring them all to justice."

"Really? How?"


	20. Chapter 20

"It's crazy! Absolutely crazy!" the Air Force Commander yelled.

"What's crazy about it?" I said.

"It's a suicide mission, that's what."

"I agree," said Larry.

"You shut up." I turned to the Commander. "And you have no choice but to follow my instructions. I'm still the King and the Commander in-Chief of the Armed Forces. My word is always the last and the final one."

He sighed. "Very well, sir." He walked over to his desk and grabbed the phone. "Yes. This the ARAF Commander speaking. Contact me with the Commander of the Border Patrol Forces. Sure I'll wait."

While we waited for the call to come through, I whispered to Larry. "How's my family?"

"Patty was taken to the Secret Shelter Location. Robert was put in charge of the Ground Forces. I think they're in the city. And Kathy and Greeny were kidnapped by the UN troops."

Those last words made my heart jump to my throat. "Where are they?"

"We've already sent a group of our guys to go see if they can find them."

"Hello?" the Commander said. I guess the call finally came through. "Yes, this is Commander Fowler, ARAF. How are you, Commander Fernfield? Fine. I have just received orders to destroy the invading lines of troops coming in and to close the gates inside and out."

He flinched a little and held the phone away. I distinctly heard screaming on the other end. "Yes, I know. Who was the idiot who told me that? Um…the King."

"What did you say?!" I said.

"He said, not me."

"Well, tell him to…forget it. Just tell him to follow orders."

"Just follow orders, please. Yes, thank you." He hung up. "Well, sir, it's said. I do hope this plan will work."

"It will, Commander. Trust me." I shook his hand. "Thank you."

"Take care, sir."

Larry and I left and headed for the Eastern Gate. That was the main gate to enter Amarkia. "You think it'll work?" I asked Larry.

He shrugged. "Maybe. Remember, they still outnumber us 120 to one. Even if we manage to stop them from entering the country and seal the borders, we're still locked in with thousands of them."

"Yeah, well, it'd be worse if they'd all been exposed to the powers. Our main goal here is to stop more of them from getting in here, and to get the ones that are already here."

"I guess so."

It was now 1:29 a.m. The moon was now at its highest. We'd called upon all the Space Armies, the entire Amarkian Royal Armed Forces and the armies from other dimensions. Already from 125 miles away, I could see the peaks of the massive mountains that made up the entire border of Amarkia.

As we closed in, we could see massive amounts of others joining us. Larry carried in his hand the key to our success. But we only had one shot at this, so it would only be used as a last resort.

When we arrived at the border, we climbed to the top of the massive steel-iron walls that encircled the mountains on the outside. Man, I'd never seen so many tanks in my life. They were coming from all directions. It was a never-ending line of UN tanks that all converged on the same spot to enter the country. It was like an invasion of ants.

"Well, here we go." I turned to Larry and my other men. "Ready? Fire!" The noise of tank engines and heavy breathing gave way to heavy machine gunfire. We all fired upon the UN tanks at the same time. That way, we'd make a bigger impact on them.

It was so dark I couldn't tell whether it was making a difference or not. But after we'd used up all our ammo, I could still hear the growl of engines. I guess that meant we hadn't made an impact. We had to find a way to seal the openings in the gates and prevent more UN troops from coming in while we did this.

I turned to Larry. "Hey, Larry. You think you can make a wall or something to block them from going in?"

"Huh?"

"Can you use your Force Field Manipulation Power to fill in the gaps they made in the gates to block it with force field matter? You wouldn't have to make a huge force field, just enough of the matter to fill in those gaps."

He started to think. I could tell he was thinking. "I think I can!"

"Great! Go and do it now!"

"Sir, yes, sir!" As was expected of him, when he saluted me, he struck me in the face with the side of his hand. But this wasn't the time or the place to settle that.

Larry ran off into the darkness. We had to find a way to slow down the river of tanks, not necessarily stop it. "Ok, men!" I yelled. "Now, get your grenades. It's too dark to see. So just throw as many as you can at once down on them and hope you target some. Ready! Throw!"

Down on the ground, you could see several explosion. We did manage to destroy the first 50 or so of them. A few were duds and didn't explode. Others were shot in the air. We hadn't had time to get our Night Vision Gear.

We kept throwing until we ran out of grenades. We'd pretty much blown up the front half mile or so of tanks. But, lo and behold, behind them were more filling in their place. And fast. Now they were coming in army trucks, which can travel at a higher speed than tanks.

We needed those gaps filled in quick. Larry came running out of breath. "I think…I managed…to do…it."

"You think?"

"Yeah, well, since those gaps are small in comparison to covering the whole country in a force field, I'm not sure it will be strong enough."

"Well, I guess we'll have to wait and see if it works. Get some men and spread the word: be ready for a fast invasion."

"I already have. That's where I was running from."

We could hear the roar of engines coming. If we heard the slamming of breaks or crashing, that would mean we succeeded. If we continued to hear motors…we were doomed. We waited and waited. There was not enough moonlight to see what was happening down below.

I hunkered down and closed my eyes. If it didn't work, I didn't want to see it…or hear it, actually.

Then, I heard a sound that made my heart start jump around in my ribcage. SQQUUUEEAALLL! CRASH! BOOM!

"We stopped them! We stopped them!" Larry yelled. "We sealed the entrances!"

I couldn't believe it. We were starting to get the upper hand! I looked down in the darkness. I couldn't see them, but I could hear them yelling every single bad word in existence. Ha ha!

I smiled to Larry. "Ready?"

He smiled back. "Ready!"

He grabbed the five-foot Plasma Cannon and pointed it towards the ground. "Everyone get down and hold on!"

The rest of us crouched down and covered. We heard a loud powering up noise. Then a brilliant white light, so bright you could see it, even with your eyes closed. Then a huge BOOM!

Then the light faded and the noise ended. "Part One of Operation Independence completed successfully!" Larry yelled. Everyone erupted into cheers and applauses. Finally, we were on our way to recovering our freedom from our oppressors.

I turned to Larry. He was on the phone. He smiled and jumped in the air. "Yes!"

"What? What is it?"

"I just called all the other gates."

"And…"

"The exact same thing happened as here."

"Really?!"

"Yes!"

"Wha-hooo!" I jumped into the air and started doing my victory dance. "But, hey. We're just beginning. Time for Part Two."

"Yes, sir! Mission Round-Up is now initiating."

(MAIN UN BASE. 20 MILES NORTH OF SAUROPOLIS.)

2:38 a.m.

"We've only got a few minutes left! They'll be here any minute!" the UN Field General said.

Everyone was running in all directions. After the Amarkians had managed to seal the gates and destroy the lines of the additional troops, they'd gone into Emergency Mode. They were retreating, but not empty-handed.

"Sir, we've got all the jewels and gold and silver in our trucks now. And our museum exhibit convoys are ready. We're about to take down the algae oil plant that's five miles from here."

"Good. Now, hurry it up. Last time I checked, they'd taken over our base near Sky City and took everything we'd grabbed. All troop members were arrested. I'm not letting this happen."

"It won't sir."

"Good! Now go get my stuff."

"Yes, sir!" the sergeant ran and brought back the General's so-called new "belongings." "Come here! Come here!"

"Let me go!" Kathy yelled. "You better let go." She wasn't going to let some ugly thug push her around. Even if he'd broken her lip and fractured her collarbone. "If you touch me, you'll be so sorry!"

The General laughed. "It's too bad your brother isn't here to protect you anymore, hot chick."

Kathy glared at him. Or at least she tried to. She'd been locked in dark, windowless-cell for nearly a week. Though the light hurt her and she had no energy, she managed to muster enough to kick the General in the gut.

"OW!"

"I…am…NOT…a chick!"

"Take her away!"

The sergeant struck Kathy on the back of the head, knocking her out. He carried her and threw her in the back of the truck with a nearly-dead Greeny.

"Are you all right, sir?"

"I'm fine, you idiot! Now let's go. That chopper won't wait forever!"

The General stepped in the passenger side of the truck. The sergeant turned on the ignition and, with everyone else behind them, started to speed out of there. Two miles from the improvised heliport, a strange 7-ton tank appeared in front of them. The brakes squealed and they came to a stop 100 feet way.

"What is that?!" the General yelled.

The door of the tank opened and a figure waved at them. "Hi, there! You miss me?"

"Didn't you tell me that the King was dead!?" the General yelled.

"We thought he was!" the sergeant replied.

"Well…he's not stopping us. Drive forward."

"Sir?"

"I said drive forward, you idiot! We're bigger than them. We'll crush him and get out of this %&* ! country!"

"But, sir, I…"

The General kicked him out of the truck and slammed his foot on the accelerator. "Say, goodbye, fossil!" he yelled and laughed.

The impact from the crash made him bounce off the front end of TIV and send him swerving in circles helplessly. The truck, its tires squealing and breaks screaming, butted headfirst against a nearby water tower.

TIV and other Amarkian vehicles arrived behind it. "Get him out of there and anything else back there. Take him to the city." He turned back. "And the rest of you, go get those other bastards!"

The Amarkian Guards handcuffed the General and grabbed him by the arms. "You can't do this to me! You have no right! This is our country! This is all mine! Do you hear me! It's all MINE!"

Spiny walked up to him. "It was all yours. But I'm reclaiming. So, if you do mind, Mr. Insurance Company, I'd like to reclaim. And I will. By this time tomorrow, you and all your friends will have to stand in court at the mercy of the justice of Amarkian Law."

Larry ran over to him. "Spiny. We found Kathy and Greeny."

"What?!"

"Kathy and Greeny! We found them! They were in the back of the truck."

"Are they all right?"

"Not really. They're severely injured. Kathy looks like she was almost raped."

Spiny's heart stopped beating. "What?"

"Signs of struggling and some injury. Thankfully, it didn't get to that. Looks like they were about to, but she saved herself because of the news of us coming and them trying to get out of here."

Spiny, extremely infuriated slowly walked over to the General, who had a wicked smile. "You…you…dirty swine!" Spiny kicked him as hard as he could across the face, which suddenly became a bloody mess. "Forget the fair trial! Take this guy and execute him! NOW!"

The men disappeared with him into the darkness. A few minutes later, Spiny heard a gunshot. He nodded in approval. He turned to Larry with a serious smile. "Come on, buddy. We've got a lot of work to do before dawn."


	21. Chapter 21

July 9

6:52 a.m.

Fifteen miles east of Sauropolis

The full rays of sunlight peaked over the mountaintops that protected us. I dusted the…well, the dust, obviously. As the light of day made itself manifest upon our country, I saw…burned buildings, debris all over the roads, and…enough bodies.

We had just finished clearing the last UN base. We had just loaded up the last group of captives. "Shall we take them to the Court Prison, sir?"

I nodded. "Yes, please do so. We'll do the interrogations later." The prison truck left me alone on the field. The late summer breeze started to flow through my hair. I'd been sitting near that rock for about three hours. We'd recovered all of our ground and managed to capture to majority. The rest we had to execute because of circumstances.

I waited there for about a half hour more. I just needed some time to myself. So much had happened in the past few hours. Now that we had achieved victory, it was time to bring our enemies to justice.

(SEVERAL HOURS LATER. AMARKIAN ROYAL HIGH COURT)

3:45 p.m.

It was the longest time I'd ever spent in a courtroom. Only this time, I was the defendant. The top leaders of the UN army were standing for their very lives. We'd gone through almost fifty witnesses, both military and civilian.

The trial had started at 8 in the morning and was being broadcast live all over the world. But now, I felt a sense of peace and serenity. And now, after both sides had presented their arguments, we were all getting ourselves seated.

The court justices stepped to their seats and also sat down. "Quiet! Quiet, please!" the Chief Justice said. When all the chattering had stopped, he stood up, holding some papers in his hand. All eyes and camera lens were trained on him. I couldn't imagine the pressure he was feeling.

I'm glad I'm not old enough to be a lawyer.

Or a judge.

Anyways, he said, "The Council of Amarkian High Court Justices, along with the help of the Royal Amarkian Council of Elders, the King, and the good people of Amarkia have come to this verdict. Therefore, we declare all defendants, that is all of the most important leaders of the United Nations Peacekeeping Troops to be…guilty!"

Oh, ho, ho! You should've seen their faces. It was the greatest feeling in the world. Call me mean if you want to, but in this case, they deserved whatever was coming to them. "The charges are…kidnapping, illegal possessions, murder, rape, theft of government properties, human rights violations, corruption, destruction of the environment, arson, and unlawful natural resource extraction and conspiracy and attempted coup d'état."

The cameras started flashing and the murmuring began.

"The punishment for all present defendants will be death by lethal injection and/or shooting this evening. All remaining UN captives will be shipped to Amarkia's penal islands 150 miles west of Costa Rica, where they will undergo forced labor for life. Court's adjourned."

We all stood up. I turned to Larry who was at my left side and Patty who was on the right. I looked behind me. Robert was standing in the way back, still in his uniform. Lilia and her friends and her parents were in the middle row.

She looked very cute by the way.

Can you believe it? She thought I'd been killed! But when she received an anonymous message to meet someone at the front of the courthouse and saw me…well, let's just say she had a reaction. She was wearing a black spaghetti-strip dress that went down to her knees. She'd even put some make-up on.

Outside, there were thousands of reporters, their cameras flashing. They were waiting for me to say something. I'd arranged to have a makeshift press conference on the court's stair steps.

I stepped in front of the microphone and waited for everyone to quiet down. "Ladies and gentlemen, these past two weeks we have gone through dramatic changes. We've lost many of our material possessions. Some of us were separated from our loved ones, only to see them today. Sadly, others will not see them alive again. We are not sure now, but we estimate that there are significant casualties. We have 8,500 injured soldiers and 10,350 dead. As for civilians, 13,500 are suffering injuries of various sorts from gunshot wounds to rape; there are up to now, anyways, 20,300 dead civilians. Damage is estimated to be around $52 million. Twelve percent of the natural environment is under Severe Damage, 5% is under Extreme Damage, and 18% of Amarkian farmland is no longer arable. These numbers are likely to rise.

"We have all learned valuable lessons from all this. These are the consequences of not being able to live with differences in our moral standards; of trying to force our morals on others. This began as an issue of LGBT rights and pro-abortion rights. But now, none of that matters. We cannot allow any government or organization to force our beliefs. Here in Amarkia, for the past tens of millions of years, and especially since the rise of civilized humans, we have strived to live a high code of conduct. We are not telling everyone what to do. We've grown up with those morals. And so far, nobody has died because of that. But in these past few days, thousands lost their lives because others tried to force their morals on us.

"We do not seek revenge nor hold resentment. However, these actions are severe and will have to face severe consequences. Therefore, the punishments are adequate, just, and fair. We do hope that both we and the world learn something from this tragedy. Maybe that way, it won't happen to the next generation. We will continue our process of physical reconstruction and emotional and mental recovery. And we hope that we may continue to reside with our neighbor countries and their peoples in peace and unity and learn to support on another. Thank you."

(A FEW HOURS LATER)

7:25 p.m.

I'd thought of talking a shower, but instead I got into the Jacuzzi and stayed there for two hours. Every single inch of my body was hurting. I guess that when all the excitement wore down, the adrenaline wore out and the pain returned.

But those hot, healing waters really helped. Felt like a good massage therapy. When I got out, I got dressed up and combed my hair and sprayed on my best cologne. I grabbed my keys and put on my new shoes.

I stepped into the hallway. The painters, carpenters, plumbers, and other repairmen were there since the morning. The Palace had been ransacked, but we managed to recover our valuables. But they'd also damaged it physically, and that wouldn't just return by itself.

Our country had been severely wounded. It wasn't going to heal overnight. And Kathy and Greeny had been very injured and the doctor said they'd be in the hospital for a while.

So, I needed time to get away from it all.

After all, we had a tremendous task before us. Anyways, I went down the stairs and stepped outside. The late evening breeze crossed over the beleaguered landscape. I crossed the street, now filled with holes and burn marks.

I went up to Lilia's house and rang her doorbell. The door opened and…huh. It wasn't her. It was Amanda. "Amanda?"

"Spiny?" she smiled.

"What are you doing here?"

"Oh, nothing. Lilia invited us to a slumber party."

"Really? Good to know."

"Why?"

"So I can remember to bring my binoculars when I climb her window and spy on you girls."

"Oh, Spiny!" she said, rolling her eyes.

I laughed. "Oh, just kidding. Where is she? Do you know?"

"Why? Have you got a…romantic rendezvous planed for the evening?" she raised her eyebrow.

I narrowed my eyes at her. "Maybe, maybe not. Why the question? All I asked was where she was."

She giggled. "Oh, nothing. She's in the wheat fields by Twin Peaks."

I nodded. "Thank you. Have a fun time at your slumber party." I turned around and started to walk away. "Hey, Spiny," Amanda called out. I turned around. She smiled and winked at me. "Have fun."

I rolled my eyes and sighed. "Yeah, whatever. Besides, if you want to know what happens, she can always tell you, right?"

She nodded. "Most likely. Bye-yee!"

Girls.

Anyways, a few minutes later, I arrived at our rendezvous point. It was mostly wheat fields with the occasional tree. I looked around and didn't see her at first. Then…I saw her. She was sitting in the middle of the field. The rays of golden sun reflected the gold fields and made her light brown hair stand out. She was looking at the ground and was sitting on her legs.

She was wearing a white semi-transparent night gown that stopped at her thighs. "Hey," I said, completely astounded from her beauty and innocence. She looked up at me. The mere sight of her face with with a plain expression was heavenly. Now imagine her smiling and her eyes shining. Sigh.

"Hey," she said.

I sat down next to her. I put my arm around her and kissed her cheek. "How are you?"

She blushed and smiled. "Fine. How are you?"

"Happy, finally. After these two weeks, I'm finally with you. Happy that we're together again and that we're both alive and here alone just the two of us."

She laughed. "Me too." She rested her head on my shoulder and relaxed herself. I put both my arms around her and held her as close as I possibly could. I could smell the sweet scent of her shampoo and her perfume. "How's Kathy and Greeny doing?"

"They're probably going to be in the hospital for a few weeks. Both have several fractures and Greeny might need surgery."

She sighed. "The good thing is that they're alive. They'll make it out just fine."

"That's what I love about you. You always make me look on the bright side." I moved my hand from her hip up to the end of her hair and started playing my finger with it.

She giggled. "I love it when you do that."

I laid back on the ground looking up at the cerulean blue sky. Lilia got beside me and wrapped her arms around me. I turned to look at her. I closed my eyes and leaned to kiss her soft lips of honey.

When we broke the kiss she sighed and said, "You know? This makes me remember when we out there by Our Place and we fell asleep in the evening, then you took me to my house and I didn't wake up until it was like, two in the morning."

She caressed my cheek. "I have a confession to make about that, princess."

"What is it, my love?"

"I didn't carry you right after you asleep that afternoon."

"What?"

I nodded. "Yeah, I, uh…I stayed there and fell asleep beside you. I was the one who woke up at two in the morning. Then I took you home."

She stared at me for a while. Then she laughed. I guessed she wasn't mad so I laughed along with her. "You're…you're not mad?"

"How could I ever be mad at you? I know you would never take advantage of me. I trust you! I know that you would protect me from anything that would harm me."

I smiled. "Yeah. I guess so."

That night, we fell asleep again under the stars. Like I said before, we had a great task before us. Only time would tell if all our efforts would be worth it.

I sure hope so.


End file.
